FIFA U-17 World Cup: What Golden Eaglets must do to scale through the Dutch and hurdles

The clock is ticking fast as the reality of a big tournament like the FIFA World Cup is about to start tonight.

Five -time champions of the world at the cadet level are not in a strange position as they will be getting another knock-out campaign on the track when they face the Netherlands in Goiania on the late Tuesday evening of the local Brazilian time.
Manu Garba tutored boys were humbled and brought down to earth by the highly focused Australia in their last Group B match which the Africans lost by 2-1.

Here are some of the rules of Nature the Nigeria U-17 must follow to ensure a sixth World Cup.

1. Going Behind: The young group of boys must ensure they don't go behind like it happened in their preliminary matches when they had to stage comebacks twice but were not thrice lucky in their last game against Australia.

2. Conceding Two Goals: Two seems to be the give away magic number for Nigeria in Brazil as the results have seen them conceded two goals in each game which is a shocking total of six for a side tipped as one of the teams that can go all the way.
Aussies showed the vulnerable Eaglets two can be enough to take one through.
3. Team Play: Nigeria had an astonishing 34 shots in their last encounter with Australia but were only able to put one away with tens of others off target. One or two more passes or one or two less touches could have made the difference but self glory hunts has been their plight since the turn of the year which could also be traced to the African U-17 Championship in Tanzania.

4. Anxiety: The team is definitely one to beat when it comes to entertainment and class with huge eight goals to their credit already, the boys can hit greater numbers if they do away from unnecessary anxiety in crucial moments.

Manu Garba should school the boys on patience in play and profitable decision making which could be difference in tough ties.

By Olamide Oyetunji