Japan Invitational Tourney:Ilerika Thank NFF, Says The Boys Will Never Be The Same Again.

Head coach of national under 15 team,Haruna Usman Ilerika has thanked Nigeria Football Federation for the opportunity to lead the team to Japan for the invitational tourney.
Ilerika said despite the commitment of Nigeria football federation to the national senior female team,Super Falcons at the world cup and the Super Eagles at the nations cup in Egypt, the football house still deemed it fit to send the boys to invitational tourney in Japan
He further said that experience gathered by the boys at the tournament is invaluable
‘We went with a crop of players who are leaving the shores of this continent for the first time and playing against white ‘
‘So it was a whole new experience for the players’
‘Can you imagine, we told them to warm up against Mexico and instead of warming up they were just looking at the Mexicans,we had to psyche them up and make them realise that they are just like them just the skin difference’
Our second match was against Japan which we lost by 4-1 despite that we were able to give a good account of ourselves because we played against the Japanese team that is going for the under 17 world cup in Brazil and their level of exposure was different from ours because by the time we played against them they had played about 12 international matches across different continent in 2019 alone compare to Nigeria that is just travelling outside the continent for the first time.

‘Even if we replay the Japanese match three times probably we might force them to a draw in the third match because their level of play, exposure and their age is far beyond our reach’
According to Ilerika he said ‘The team really evolved because by the time we play our third match against Romania, which we lost by 2-1 the boys were not the same again,their movement on and off the ball and the inferiority complex they suffered in the first and second match was no longer there now we see a crop of players who were ready to prove themselves even though we lost a penalty in the match but everybody commended the team for their age and performance’.
‘Now these boys can go anywhere now and we not feel intimidated by anything which is what this tournament has done and some might make it to the under 17 world cup in Brazil’.