Nigeria ’s National Under 20 head coach Samson Siasia is promising the sternest test of all for this country’s National Under 20 team when both teams meet at the Abuja National Stadium from 4pm (11am TT time) on Tuesday.
But it’s going to be tougher than the previous encounters.
“We have prepared and we intend to give Trinidad the biggest challenge. It should be a very good game because we are also preparing for the Under 20 World Championship,” Siasia told TTFF Media after his team trained at the Abuja National Stadium on Monday evening under wet conditions simultaneously with T&T as the two teams used either half of the playing pitch.
“We are ready to play the boys from the Caribbean . We have had a good showing in our screening sessions. We have most of the players from the Under 17 team that won the Cup in 2007 but football at the Under 17 level and at the Under 20 level is totally different because you have guys at Under20 who are already playing for their senior teams.
“While we are preparing for the Under 20 finals, it’s never easy to finish second both in the Under 20 and the Olympic finals and it’s never easy getting there in the first place. What we will try to do now is go all the way. Football is about entertainment and what we will try to do tomorrow against Trinidad is to do more of the entertaining and win the game,” said Siasia who added that he didn’t know much about Trinidad and Tobago on the football stage but followed them at the 2006 World Cup.
“I don’t know a great deal about Trinidad but I saw you at the 2006 World Cup and what I can say is if you can get to that level then there must be something good about your country and it’s just about trying to build on it,” he added.
Siasia is a former Nigerian international with 46 caps and was a member of the 1994 World Cup team in the United States and also part of their 1994 African Nations Cup winning team.
He also coached Nigeria ’s Under 20 team to runners up spot at the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship where the lost to Argentina in the final. In 2008, Siasia also led Nigeria as head coach to Silver Medal at the Beijing Olympics where they lost again to Argentina in the final.
Nigeria finished what was for them a disappointing third at the last African Nations Youth Cup before the Football Association reappointed Siasia as head coach of the Under 20s to prepare them for the upcoming Finals in Egypt .
The current Nigeria U-20 team is expected to have some of its professional players including Atletico Madrid defender Kingsley Udoh who trained with the team on Monday.. He was the captain of their 2007 Under 17 team which won the FIFA World Championship and was signed as a 17-year-old by the Spanish club.
Vranes is fully aware of Nigeria ’s history at this level.
“Well I think it is no secret that everyone expects them be a dominant force in world football. And at the youth level they have a fantastic record. This is why I am very anxious about the game because it will be a tremendous test for our boys. A positive results will be great but what is important is to see how well we measure up against them and what we can take away from this experience as we prepare for Egypt ,” Vranes told TTFF Media on the eve of the match.
Vranes could possibly give a start to striker Juma Clarence who has looked the liveliest of the four strikers in the team and was the scorer of T&T’s first goal in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Abuja FC. Skipper Leston Paul is expected to return to the starting team along with first call goalkeeper Glenroy Samuel, Daneil Cyrus, Curtis Gonzalves, Uriah Bentich, Mikeil Williams and Sean De Silva also expected to be among those in the first eleven.