I am making a simple appeal this morning for ball fans within Ilorin (capital of Kwara State) and environs to endeavour to turn up at the Ilorin Township Stadium tomorrow (Sunday, 12th August, 2012) to cheer our U-20 National Team, which is known as Flying Eagles, to victory in their 2013 African Youth Championship qualifier against their counterparts from Tanzania.

This appeal comes to emphasize the call made by the Nigeria Football Federation last week for all Nigerians to forget the poor outing of the Flying Eagles at the Cape Town International Challenge in South Africa a couple of months ago, and get behind the team and believe in the team again.

Belief is important before heartfelt support can come and we felt it was necessary to canvass support for the team based on the waning confidence in the team as a result of that misadventure in South Africa and defeat by Rwanda's U-20 Team in a friendly in Kigali.

The Flying Eagles helped the situation by going to Dar es Salaam to win 2-1 in the first leg of the 2013 AYC fixture and have over the past week driven past Kwara United FC of Ilorin and Prime FC of Oshogbo comfortably in test matches.

The Flying Eagles are not only the reigning champions of Africa at U-20 level, but have severally lifted the spirits of Nigerians with credible performances internationally, even when other teams come home with nothing.

A cursory look at the history books will convince that the Flying Eagles were the first Nigerian team to appear at a FIFA World Cup, when the team played at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Mexico in 1983. The team had narrowly failed to make it to the 1981 finals in Australia following a home defeat by Cameroon in the final lap.

Two years after Mexico, the Flying Eagles drove themselves hard at the finals in USSR and beyond expectation, finishing third after beating the host nation on penalties. What about the African titles in 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2005 and 2011?

Surely, we have good reasons to always get behind the Flying Eagles as the team has always performed.

However, I am happy at the caution by NFF Technical Committee chairman, Barrister Chris Green, to the team to shape up and forget about the first leg win, in order to compete hard in the return leg in Ilorin on Sunday and get Tanzania fully behind it.

Barrister Green led the delegation to Tanzania and certainly knows what he is talking about. He made it clear that the Tanzanians are no push-overs, as they fought hard after conceding two goals in thefirst half. They have nothing to lose in Ilorin and a team is most

dangerous when it has nothing to lose.

As it is, Tanzanians are not expecting much from their team in tomorrow's match, the exquisitely-named Ngorongoro Heroes having lost the first leg at home. So, it is play-and-enjoy-yourself-as-much-as-possible and that is when football is at its best.

While the Flying Eagles themselves have not been at picnic since returning from Dar es Salaam, the visitors are likely to hope that high expectations of Nigerians would conspire to put the Flying Eagles under pressure. I really believe this will not be the case.

I have a responsibility to use this opportunity and platform to express the NFF's heartfelt appreciation to the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed for agreeing to host the Flying Eagles, thereby helping the NFF's vision of taking the National Teams round the country.

The Super Eagles have been playing in Calabar, Cross River State, thanks to the ebullient Governor Liyel Imoke and his administration, and the good people of that State. The Golden Eaglets will also be making Calabar home (rather, have already made it home) as they look forward to their 2013 African U-17 Championship qualifying matches.

While the Super Falcons played their 2012 African Women Championship qualifying and international friendly matches in Lagos, the U-20 and U-17 Women Teams played their qualifying matches in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The desire of the NFF is to see other States come forward and offer to host international matches so that football can truly serve its purpose of uniting or people and giving them joy.

Good Job, Sunshine Stars...

Last week, on this page, I had called on Sunshine Stars FC to come out and fight hard for three points in their CAF Champions League halfway mark clash with AS Chief of Algeria. And I am happy they did so.

Sometimes, you need a wake-up call to really wake up. When they hosted Cup holders Esperance of Tunisia at the same Dipo Dina International Stadium in their first match of the group phase, the Nigerian flag-bearers simply caved in, allowed themselves to be brow-beaten and watched as the North Africans taught them some technical lessons.

Having learned so much in one day, Sunshine Stars FC became a much-better team and we saw that in their endeavour in Sousse, Tunisia two weeks later when they drew 0-0 with another strong Tunisian side, Etoile du Sahel.

That 2-0 victory over AS Chief could eventually mean so much in the campaign. I was elated reading Coach Ogunbote saying that his team would have no time to celebrate the win over the Algerians; that rather, they are already looking forward to playing and fighting hard for three points in the return clash in Algeria next weekend.

That is the spirit, guys. Football is no magic if you prepare hard and fight hard on the pitch, and remember all that you have learnt.