International Football
IT’S WAITING GAME AT U17 AS GOLDEN EAGLETS AND POSSIBLE OPPONENTS WAIT
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets will have to wait for the conclusion of the late games on Sunday before the clear picture of their Tuesday’s knockout stage opponent emerges.
The Nigerian side had since last week Tuesday been the first team to qualify for the Round of 16. They may be the last to know the next opponents, an investigation by www.sportsvillagesquare.com has revealed.
The Sports Village Square investigation revealed that a logjam has emerged in the determination of the Golden Eaglets will face.
As Group B leaders, the Golden Eaglets are to face the best third-placed team from Groups A, C or D.
All the three teams – New Zealand from Group A, Chile from Group C and The Netherlands from Group D – finished with three points each.
Thus, tiebreaker will have to be employed. According to regulations of the competition, if two or more teams in the same group are equal on points, a draw would be required to determine their positions.
The determinants before a lucky draw are the number of goals and goal different. On that account, New Zealand from Group A, stand eliminated as it has three-goal deficit when goal difference is taken into account.
Both Chile in Group C and The Netherlands in Group D, each with a goal-deficit, are therefore the ones to go into the draw.
When Chile finished their last Group C game on Saturday in an encounter in which they were defeated 2-1 by Korea Republic and thus dropped to the third position on the log, they had to wait for the outcome of Group D game of USA and The Netherlands.
Their hope would have been that the European champions should not score many goals.
Alas, The Netherlands beat US by 4-0! This means that both Chile and The Netherlands have identical records necessitating the current tiebreak situation.
The Dutch will now have to wait till the end of late matches involving Italy and Paraguay as well as that of Mexico and Solomon Islands to determine whether they are qualified to face Nigeria on Tuesday.
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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