Leadership (Abuja)
Ishaku Kigbu
16 November 2009
Abuja — Last night at the National Stadium, Abuja, the Swiss national U-17 World Cup team beat the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria 1-0, stopping them from making history as the first team to host and win the U-17 World Cup.
A Sferovic Harris 63rd- minute goal dashed the hopes of the defending champions from successfully defending the trophy they won two years ago in Korea Republic.
On the other side of the coin, U-17 World Cup debutants, Switzerland, made history by winning the 13th edition of the U-17 World Cup trophy before the very eyes of the FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter, who incidentally is a Swiss.
Nigeria had won the tournament three times, in 1985, 1993 and 2007, and were gunning for a fourth title but fell to the tactical discipline of the Swiss boys.
The Golden Eaglets were punished for not taking their chances, especially in the first half, but at the same time made history as the first host to play in the finals.
The Swiss, making their first appearance in the competition, were one of the three teams that made their debut in the U-17 category.
Ahead of the finals, history had favoured the Golden Eaglets in terms of numbers of appearances as they were featuring in their 9th finals, making them to pride themselves as the most featured African team.
To reach the finals, Nigeria drew 3-3 against Germany in the opening game, beat Honduras 1-0, Argentina 2-1 to top group A with 7 points. In the round of 16, the Eaglets thrashed New Zealand 5-0 and beat Korea Republic 3-1 in the quarter finals. They humbled Spain 3-1 to reach the finals.
Switzerland, on the other hand, won all their matches; defeated Brazil, Mexico and Japan in Group B, knocked out Germany 3-2 in the Round of 16, and beat Italy and Colombia in the quarter and semi-finals respectively before beating Nigeria in the finals to pick the trophy last night.
Meanwhile, Spain beat Colombia 1-0 to win the bronze in the third place match played early in the same stadium.
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