By: Gracious Akujobi The National U-13 team defeated Royal Gold Soccer Academy of Akure 4-0 in a friendly match played on Tuesday at the Akure township stadium.
National U-13 midfielder, Gods Power, from Edo state, scored as early as the sixth minute to state the intent of the coach Danladi Nasidi led side. Although, the Royal Gold boys managed to keep the national team at bay for close to 20 minutes, they were however left helpless in the 25th minute, when a defensive blunder ensured that Aminu Adamu sneaked in to score the 2nd goal to end the first 45 minutes 2-0 in favor of the national U-13 boys.
Coach Danladi brought in a totally different set of players for the second half and the boys did not disappoint, midfielder Promise Eshiebor also from Edo state made it 3-0 in the 60th minute while Aremu Lateef from Ogun state sealed a comfortable 4-0 win in the 70th minute.
Despite the heavy defeat, the Royal Gold Soccer Academy team can however take solace in the fact that one of their players, Emmanuel Fatumoju, who played as a defensive midfielder, impressed the national team handlers and has been picked to join the team in camp.
“Players like Fatumoju are the reasons NFF initiated this programme, to discover and groom young players of the right ages for Nigeria football, because the Aminu Maigari-led NFF board believes in catching them young. Coach Danladi Nasidi added.”
The game was the first in the series of friendly matches the team would play during their four-week camping exercise in Akure, the capital city of Ondo state.
Meanwhile, coach Nasidi has announced that six players who could not measure up to the demands of the national camp have been dropped. They are, Umaru Abdullahi(Kaduna state), Abudmajeed Mohammed(Niger state), Adeniran Usman(Ogun state), Obilana Deji(Ekiti state), Stephen Daniel(Kaduna state), and Aliu Lemu (Niger state).
