ACTUALITE |
27.09.2001
Africans dominate U-17 World Cup
Some of them may only be 15 years old, but the young stars of Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali have proved beyond doubt that African football is continuing to come of age.
The African nations have dominated the Fifa U-17 World Championship here in Trinidad and Tobago over the last fortnight.
It was the only region to see all three sides make the final eight and two of them, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, will make a mouth-watering match-up in a semi-final that guarantees an African side will be in the final.
Indeed, had Mali not lost to a dramatic golden goal in extra time against Argentina in their quarter final tie, we could have had the prospect of an all-African final.
Both Nigeria and Burkina Faso have found their way into the hearts of passionate supporters during the two weeks of competition on the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
Local support
In Nigeria`s case, that`s hardly surprising. Some 40 per cent of Trinibogians, as they term themselves, can trace their ancestry directly back to Nigeria.
Burkina`s Ouedrago targets Costa Rica`s Azofeife in the quarter-final
So when that nation`s U-17 players took on the likes of France, USA and Japan in their Group B games in Bacolet, Tobago, they were guaranted noisy support.
Trumpeters, drummers and soca dancers have played, drummed and swayed in support of the Super Eaglets.
Nigeria won all three group games, in front of packed crowds, inspired by striker Karimu Shaibu, whose goals in each game were matched only by his eye-catching gymnastic celebrations.
Nigeria stayed in Tobago for their quarter-final tie, a potentially tricky encounter with a very organised Australian side.
But the Aussies were unpicked by some deadly finishing as they were crushed 5-1.
Hat-trick hero
Musa Abdullahi, at 37 one of the youngest coaches in the competition, was thrilled by a perfomance that saw Femi Opabunmi scoring a hat-trick.
Shaibu was forced to sit out that game with a thigh strain, but Nigerian officials are hopeful that he can return for the semi-final tie - though cartwheels and handstands may be banned from his goalscoring celebration routine as a precautionary measure!.
Wilfried Sanou has scored three of Burkina`s six goals
Burkina Faso will be hoping to stop any goal-scoring routines, whatever the choreography.
They began the competition as outsiders, only making sure of their place after reaching the African championship final as `lucky losers` - where they lost 3-0 to Nigeria - as a result of Guinea being expelled because of political interference in their FA.
But if they were underdogs for this tournament, nobody had told them, especially star men Wilfried Sanou up front and exciting winger Madi Panandetiguiri.
Fans` favourites
Only a very debatable late penalty denied them a deserved victory over Argentina in their opening group game, and from then on, they had secured the position of fans` favourites.
A 2-1 win over Spain, the European champions, was followed by a nervous 1-1 draw with Oman, enough to see them through.
In the quarter finals, they came through against a dogged Costa Rica side to win 2-0.
As proof of the African unity, only minutes after seeing his side beaten in such agonising circumstances against Argentina, the Mali coach Sekou Diallo was up in the stands to cheer on his fellow Africans in their own quarter-final.
No doubt Burkina Faso go into the semi-final with Nigeria as underdogs again.
But both sides are unlikely to under-estimate their rivals, and the rest of the world will be foolish to under-estimate the growing strengths of African football.
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Hits: 1 | Source:BBC | |
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