The King Abdullah II International Stadium in Amman will be bubbling with excitement when the Flamingoes of Nigeria take on Brazil in their Group C opener of the U17 WWCup in Jordan today.
This class of birds in addition to their Olympic bronze, have been one of the few bright spots for Nigeria this year, and booked their passage to Jordan with an amazing tour de force. Not only did they score 16 times with a prolific attack, but their stingy defense has only conceded corners so far, and absolutely not one single goal.
Even for a team that has never missed out on any WCup since its inception and factoring one walkover - this is quite a feat.
Spearheaded by captain Rasheedat Ajibade, who top-scored in qualifying with eight goals, they are determined to finally break through the quarter-final barrier and to become the second African side to claim a medal at the competition, after Ghana in 2012.
The Flamingoes [above] are bent on moving past the ‘crumble after 90-minutes hex’ that has always ousted them ( two came after extra time and on one of these occasions it took a penalty shoot-out to end their hope) .
Facing them will be Brazil whom themselves are no pushovers and are keen on reintroducing their vibrant brand of football despite missing out on Costa Rica in 2014. Runners up in South America, this will be the Brazilians fourth U17 WWCup and much of their success will depend once again on strikers Nycole Silva and Kerolin Ferraz, who combined to score eight of the 15 goals Brazil amassed in the qualifying competition.
In a group loaded with talent ( Korea DPR and England are the other two) how these two juggernauts leave the gates in front of the 13265 fans this afternoon may prove to be vital as to which two will eventually move on to the knock out stage. The Africans will have an extra incentive as it is Independence Day in Nigeria and they will be eager to give their fans an extra special present to celebrate. Both teams have faced each other only once before. It ended in a 2-2 draw.
Game time conditions are expected to remain ideal at kick-off.
In other action for Africa, Ghana will be taking on the USA in Group D while Cameroun lost 3-2 to Canada yesterday.
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