Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets’ assistant coach, Jolomi Atume has expressed confidence that the technical crew will come out with a sold squad for this year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil, and says they will use two weeks’ build-up in Sao Paulo to finalise their plans for the global competition, which begins on the 26th of this month, megasportsarena.com reports.
Speaking against the backdrop of Monday’s tune-up game against a Sao Paulo selected squad, to start the last lap of their preparations, Atume assured that the Eaglets’ crew will pick a roster that will do better than the ones they lined out at the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania.
He reasoned further that the players will be able to praticalise all aspects of the training steps they have received mentally, physically and technically, with three build-up games arranged for them against Sao Paulo FC youth team as well as the under-17 squads of Japan and South Korea.
Despite losing 2-1 to Sao Paulo in their first game on Monday, Atume is of a view that the Eaglets will be able to correct all lapses and areas of flaws during their next match against South Korea on Wednesday, the same day the technical crew is expected to submit their final squad list for Brazil 2019, but the assistant coach assured that they will do a thorough job for Nigeria’s pride.
Atume disclosed at length: “We are working on all aspects of the game. We are building the team in mental and physical areas as well as the normal technical and tactical details. We believe we will be able to get our final team selection from what we see in the three friendly matches that we will play in Sao Paulo, before the World Cup proper begins on October 26.
“We are working on the ones we took to Tanzania and the others that have joined us since then. We believe we will get a better team than the one we took to the African under-17 championship in Tanzania. I believe will have a team that is good enough to make all Nigerians proud of us.”
