Why our age group teams are failing - Kwasau

Why our age group teams are failing - Kwasau

By Vincent Akinbami, Kaduna

Kada Warriors Chief Coach, Dalanmi Kwasau has enumerated the reasons why the age group national teams especially the U-17 team has not been doing well.

Speaking during his team's training session, he told www.sportsunlimited.ng reporter that the idea of doing MRI after picking the final team and late preparation have been the major problems.

"After picking your team and MRI is carried out, you can lose 80% of your boys and you now find yourself having to do a make shift," he said.

He also talked about late preparation for qualifiers. "We always think we have talents and can gather boys together within a short time to raise a good team

"Atimes it might be unavailability of funds that delays camp opening on time."

Going forward, he advised that since the country has an Under-15 team on ground, they should open camp with the players while also monitoring the various youth tournaments around the federation; like YSFON, secondary school football tournaments like the Shell Cup and Manuwa Adebajo Cup, where players can be picked.

He also laid emphasis on going to camp early enough. "Now that the World Cup is over, this is the time to open camp and start scouting. That's what all the countries doing well are doing. But for us now, we have forgotten about the fact that fixtures for qualifiers will be released soon.

Finally, he advised that as the players are coming to camp, the MRI test should be carried out to know whether to drop or retain such a player unlike when we wait untill weeks to the matches and find out that the players failed the MRI and start running helter skelter.

He added that Nigeria has got talents but planning and organization are lacking.