SPORT Amuneke salutes Eaglets’ winning start

Golden Eaglets Head coach, Emmanuel Amuneke has described Saturday’s 2-0 win over the United States of America as a morale booster for the players in the quest to successfully defend the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Chukwudi Agor and Victor Osimhen gave Nigeria a winning start courtesy of two second half goals against the Americans at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015.

“The victory today against the USA was important for us and I want to congratulate the boys for making Nigerians happy,” Amuneke told thenff.com.

He continued: “They (players) were tentative in the first 20 minutes and this was expected because it was the first time they were playing at a big stage such as the World Cup but it was important we won the first game since it would boost our confidence going into the next game against host Chile; so we are happy but will continue to work harder.

“Today’s victory against the USA is for Nigerians especially for many who stayed up late to watch the match,” stated the former African Footballer of the Year who refrained from praising the goal scorers against USA.”It is the job of all the players to do their respective jobs in the interest of the team. We want to play and win as a team and collectively, we want to work in order to achieve our overall objective at this tournament.”

Meanwhile, midfielder Chukwudi Agor has described his goal and indeed the opening goal in Group A at Chile 2015 against the USA, as very important for his budding career. It was Agor’s second goal for the national U-17 side after he grabbed the winner in the 2-1 win over Brazil at the Suwon U-17 Tournament in September.

“I’m happy that I scored today,” said Agor, which means ‘gift from God’ in Ibo dialectic. “I’m dedicating the goal to my sister, Oluchi.”

The Golden Eaglets will, in the meantime, hit the road on Sunday for Vina del Mer where they will play host Chile at the 24,000 Capacity Estadio Sausalito on Tuesday.