How we turned the Eaglets into goal scoring machines– Garba

World Cup winning coach Manu Garba has spoken up for the first time on how the historic Golden Eaglets were turned into a goals-scoring machine at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, which ended last weekend in the United Arab Emirates.

The Golden Eaglets won the World Cup for a record fourth time after beating Mexico 3-0 in the final held at the Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Manu Garba celebrates after the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 Semi Final match between Sweden and Nigeria at Al Rashid Stadium on November 5, 2013 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by FIFA)

The team scored 26 goals en route winning the Cup, a record feat since the competition started in China in 1985 and speaking on how his players were turned into sharp shooters, Garba told Sports Vanguard

that it was down to the experienced coaching crew, which sold the philosophy of total attacking football to the players, who in turn replicated it n the pitch.

“When we started recruiting players into this team, the coaching crew wanted players who can score. We had to sell the idea to them that they must know how to score before passing making the grade.

“My task was made easy because I was surrounded by experienced former football stars like Emmanuel Amuneke, a winner of the African footballer of the year award, Nduka Ugbade, the skipper of the first Golden Eaglets that won the first FIFA Under-16 Cup and Emeka Amadi, who was a former goalkeeper of the Flying Eagles.

“With these high caliber coaches working with me, we drilled the players on the technique of scoring and I must tell you that it was a tough and painful experience because these young lads were pushed to

the limit and they coped well because they are young.

“They showed us that they had adopted our new philosophy of attacking football by scoring in all their matches. They were now just good at scoring but also good at unsettling the opponents with relentless

attack from all wings. They were truly goal-scoring machines and that was why we were confident that we were going to score not just once but three times”, added a beaming Garba.

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