The much talked about Chief Of The Naval Staff under 14 boys and NOWA under 17 girls National Championships are living up to expectations as Abuja venue of the competition is attracting international attention.
Youths across Nigeria have been in highly competitive spirit as reflected in Match day one results.
Apart from the Nigerian Navy Boys team, and their Taraba counterparts, most of the states have so far recorded stalemates, indicative of the stiff opposition and resilience demonstrated by the competing states.
The Taraba U-14 team fought really hard before they could overpower their Airforce Youths opponents by a lone goal.
The Navy boys also gave a good account of themselves, beating Bauchi state by 2-0
Defending champions Kwara state couldn’t muster enough courage against FCT.The highly entertaining encounter ended 1-1.
For Edo, they have themselves to blame despite putting up a formidable performance, they couldn’t subdue their Ekiti State opponents. The match ended goalless.
The Story wasn’t different with the girls’ competition as the Navy girls had a bad day losing 2-0 to Ekiti. Kwara girls also started on a promising note. They defeated their Cross River counterparts 3-0 amongst others.
Going by fixtures for today’s matches, FCT girls will play, Nigerian Navy while Imo girls will keep a date with their Ekiti State opponents, Cross River will face Nigerian Airforce girls amongst others.
For the boys, Police Youth team will square up against FCT, Enugu to play Taraba while Zamfara will confront Ekiti. Nasarawa against Kebbi and Kwara to settle scores against Kogi amongst others.
Technical Director of the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria YSFON Abdul Gafar Agboola says he is so impressed with the quality of play so far and given the determination of the competing teams, football lovers should expect more excitement and quality display
By Paul Akhagbemhe