Nigeria awakens late in match for 2nd win

15 April 2015 03:44

The 4-1 victory for Nigeria over Egypt was the tightest of matches, and even though the score shows something different, the proceedings were very close. The two teams played brilliant defense in the opening two periods and the trend continued for Nigeria as they continued to push for a shutout. The Nigerians were unable to keep Egypt scoreless as a flick from Abouserie got them on the scoreboard. The win gives Nigeria their second victory in two games and they now have six points and a spot in the semi-finals. Nigeria will face another African beach soccer giant on Thursday, Cote d’Ivoire. Egypt lost their opening two matches and in heartbreaking fashion, but they can rebound on Thursday against Seychelles on Thursday.

 

Egypt showed on the opening day that they are very unselfish players and can play with anybody and the opening half of the opening period against Nigeria showed that it was not a fluke. The Nigerians may have won big against Seychelles but they were not able to score against the rigid Egyptian defense. The Pharaohs looked like the more aggressive team in the first frame, and showed more poise on offense than they had against Cote d’Ivoire. The very quick first period went by without a goal and the teams went into the first break still tied at 0. The Egyptian goalkeeper was asked to do much more than his Nigerian counterpart in the second frame, however, neither side hit the back of the net going into the final minutes of the period. The frantic defending and unlucky or lucky, depending on the point of view, shots against the frame of the goal, kept Egypt at 0. The Beach Eagles got their first goal on a splendid individual effort from Olawale and the score sat at 1-0 for Nigeria going into the final break.

 

Abu of Nigeria quickly took matters into his own hands and scored on an athletic and acrobatic overhead kick, to double the Sand Eagles’ lead. The Egyptians looked comfortable and were not rattled, in part because they were hard done with their shots, but also because they had played extremely well. They may have fought with the best of Africa but Egypt could not keep down Nigeria for long as they allowed two more quick goals to make the score 3-0 going into the last minutes of the match. An unfortunate own goal put the score at 4-0 and the Nigerians began looking like the tournament favourite that they are. When the final whistle sounded, Nigeria was up 4-1.

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