U-17 W/cup: Argentina tames Honduras in rain soaked match, - We are under pressure - Argentine coach

By Tosin Omojola and Ben Nwachukwu, Abuja - 01.11.2009

ARGENTINA started its campaign in the FIFA U-17 World Cup tagged Nigeria 2009 with a 1-0 win over Honduras but the encounter was marred by heavy down pour which turned the Abuja National Stadium pitch into a pool.

The two sides were enjoying the flow of the match in the tournament’s opening match with the Argentines trying to intimidate the Hondurans untill the heavens opened up and took the shine off the game.

With just few fans on the terraces to watch the match, the worse was to happen minutes after the Argentines’goaL when the heavy rain started, thus dissturbuing the free flow of the encounter.

Nigerians and the rest of the world watched with dismay and shock as the pitch was overflowed by water as a result of the heavy down pour which affected the surface of the pitch.

The development raised different posers on whether there was drainage system in the stadium which is a FIFA standard arena which by implications neans that the Local Organising Committe (LOC) of the championship has questions to answer.Ben Nwachukwu, Abuja.

Meanwhile, THE Argentine national U-17 Coach, Jose Brown has declared that he is under pressure from his country to win the ongoing FIFA U-17 world cup in the Nigeria considering the fact that they have not won the U-17 world cup. The Argentine coach who made this declaration at the post match conference after his side’s one zero win over the Honduras team maintained he is so happy that victory came their side in the waterlogged stadium.

He stated that since he has achieved his first aim of winning the first match he is now fixing his attention on the next match, hoping that victory will come their way again.“Since we have won this match we are now going to go back to the drawing board in preparation for the next match against Germany. Our plan in this group is to take each match at a time. After the German match, we will still have to go back to the drawing board for the Nigeria match”.

The coach who himself was a former player of the Argentine National side that won the 1978 FIFA world cup in Argentina maintained that his ultimate goal in the tournament is to propel his lad to play the final on the 14th of November in Abuja. He however showered praises on the Honduras side for their doggedness during the match, declaring that it would have been a more interesting match had the rain not fell.

“We would have had a more interesting match had the weather been favorable. I believe that the match would have produced more goals. The Honduras side pushed us to the limit but I happy that we won eventually” he stated.