Nigeria’s coach, John Obuh says he never told Nigerians that he will not present a good team for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Nigeria 2009 but only wanted the World to know that he would give his best despite the circumstances that led to their taking over the team midway into the preparation for the championship.
The Nigerian trainer during the post match conference after beating Korea to secure the Semi-Finals’ ticket at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar on Monday assuring africansportsdigest.com that the team also want to win the trophy like others although their preparation for the tourney was haphazard.
“I never said I’ll not do well in this FIFA U-17 World Cup because I came in late to join the team and the MRI result which led to the sacking of the three quarter of our former team. I only said that I’ll give my best and the players too will do their best and if their best is god enough we’ll win the title,” Obuh said.
“It was not easy for us in this championship because others have been preparing for it three years ago, we only had four to six months to come up with a wining team and I thank God, because nobody is disappointed. We have made mistakes and really need to change certain things if we had time, but all the anomalies have been subsumed by our interest and love for our country.
“This is a national assignment, therefore it would have been so stupid for us to reject it, although on principle you can say no, but I am not afraid of challenges, this is why I accepted the job. We want to put in our best, and this best is taking us to places and our focus now is on wining the trophy.”
Obuh added that his players are his tools for executing the assignment hence he does not joke with their preparations and welfare.
“These are the uppermost things in my mind as I know that the target is the Trophy,” he said.