By Onochie Anibeze

After watching the tough duel between Nigeria and England in the round of 16 match at the ongoing Under-20 World Cup in Colombia, Sylvanus Okpala is making one wish – that coach John Obuh of the Flying Eagles watches the tape of France six times.

Nigeria will play France in a quarter final match today. France eased out Ecuador 1-0, the same margin that Nigeria had over England.

Before the clash with England, Nigeria appeared to be sailing over teams, scoring 12 goals in three matches. They hit Guatemala 5-0, Croatia 5-2 and Saudi Arabia 2-0.

But it was not the same story with England who seemed unlucky not to have converted their chances. Coach Obu has even admitted that they made mistakes and promised to correct them before they face France on Sunday.

On account of their play it was clear that England read the Nigerians properly and devised the way to hold the pacy Nigerians. They marked the Nigerians even in their half but at the same time did not attack massively in order not to open up their rear, knowing that Nigerians were fast.

They attacked when they saw space. On the part of the Flying Eagles they kept on using long and high crosses on approaching the opponents’ area at the initial stage. They did not consider the tall frames of English players who easily won the aerial battles and looked confident in warding Nigeria off. It gave the impression that the Nigerian officials did not properly study their opponents before the match and found the match very difficult in spite of the capacity of the individual players. But they changed a little bit later.

It was probably against this background that Okpala advised that Obu watches the tapes of France in their last match and some of their group matches. “There could be more difficult scenarios from now and I wish Obuh watches the tapes of France matches. At this stage of the competition he could watch them as many as six times. The other two coaches should also watch them six times each. That will add up to 18 times.

That should be the way. Ability to read games matters a lot especially at this knock out stage. Normally, coaches are sent to watch opponents and they all put heads together with the head coach. They analyse the opponents and note their individual and collective abilities. That way, they come up with how to counter their strength and how to take advantage of their weaknesses.

You would have noticed that England read us well because they attacked in their previous games more than they did against us. What they lacked was finishing and also their right attacker stayed too far to the extreme and that did not help in dragging our defenders out.

He stayed too far from their central attacker and that denied them the combination that would have created more troubles for us. I was very happy when we scored. It was a difficult game and I wish we could watch France well and come up with something that can win us the match. But it is one thing to watch and another thing to come up with ideas. Everybody around should assist.

It is a team work. In tournaments, some teams start well and end well, some start well and derail along the line, some start badly but improve as the tournament progresses. We have started well and I hope and pray we end well although I know that there will be more difficult scenarios. Success will depend more on our ability to read opponents and come up with what could win us games. I’m wishing them well.”