Ten-man Nigeria’s U-15 male football team, the Future Eagles on Sunday June 4 lost 2-1 to USA in their final fixture at the 2023 International Dream Cup Tournament in Japan.
The Baby Eagles showed much improvement in their performance from their previous two matches, but were unable to overcome the USA.
The Futures Eagles rallied round after going 2-0 down. Udoh solomon of N Youth Football Academy of Abuja score Nigeria’s goal in the 84th minute, to half the deficit, shortly after Alantan Azuka collected a red card in the match.
Haruna Ilerika’s boys applied more pressure in the dying minutes of the match including hitting the crossbar but failed to find an equaliser as the game ended 2-1 in favour of the North Americans.
Group leaders, Netherlands and host Japan will play the final game to determine who emerge winner of the four-nation annual tournament. The Orange boys needs just a draw to win their first Dream Cup tournament.
Japan has won the competition a record five times.
Nigeria played three matches in the competition but lost all of them, thus ending bottom of the table.
They lost 1-0 against the Netherlands on June 1, trashed 6-1 against host Japan on Friday June 2 before their narrow defeat against USA Sunday morning. They conceded nine goals and scored two. The team had just two weeks camping in Abuja ahead of the tournament.
The Future Eagles will leave Japan on Monday afternoon and arrive Nigeria on Tuesday June 6, 23 hours later.
Credit: bestchoicesports
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