Eaglets perfect penalty kicks

The Golden Eaglets’ coaching crew is leaving no stone unturned as they perfect strategies ahead of Wednesday’s decisive semi-final game against Tunisia at the Grande Stade de Marrakech.
The Confederation of African Football has already informed the Nigerian team that there won’t be an additional 30 minutes of extra time should any of the semi final matches end in a draw.
The continental soccer governing body is strictly abiding with the regulations instituted by FIFA since 2011 that all knockout matches at the Under-17 level must progress straight to penalties if tied at the end of 90 minutes.
FIFA reportedly eliminated the extra time period to avoid players’ burnout.
“We have never excluded taking penalties from our training even before now,” Manu Garba, Golden Eaglets Head Coach said, adding: “In fact, almost all the players are good at taking penalties but we are going to even work more as we prepare against Tunisia.”
That some of the world’s best players often ‘choke’ and collapse under the weight of expectations during penalty shootout is a known fact hence the Nigerian lads are being tutored against becoming ‘choke artists’ on the big stage by their coaching crew.
At Monday’s training at the Sidi Youssef Ben Ali Stadium in Marrakech, the coaches took time off the regular training regimen to teach the players the art of perfect penalty taking.
“We are taking no chances at all and you can see that we are taking everything seriously,” Garba noted after the shootout exercise. “But we don’t want to depend on the lottery of the penalties. As such; we would try our best and win the match in regulation time.”
Incidentally, Golden Eaglets’ Success Isaac, who is the leading scorer at Morocco 2013 CAN U-17 with six goals, has demonstrated the composure expected of the team when he scored from the 12 yards against Ghana and Congo in the team’s group matches.