USA Coach Say's We’ll Play Nigerian Eaglets With Energy

American coach, Richie Williams

The Golden Eaglets battle USA tonight in their opening Group A match at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. In this interview with USA Soccer, American coach, Richie Williams says it won’t be a stroll in the park for the four-time World Cup winners from west Africa, who he warns to expect an energetic play from the Yankees.

How do you feel about this team you were able to assemble?
Richie Williams: I think it’s a pretty well-rounded roster. When you look over the two-plus years we’ve been together, we’ve had the ability to push forward and score goals with a lot of talented attacking players, but also on the defensive end we’ve had a lot of great games where we’ve defended well. We were able to play a good amount of international matches and domestic matches and we hope through all of those experiences we have a really balanced team of 21 players that comes together and gets positive results.

The team will play in the opening game of the tournament against Nigeria. Is it a challenge playing in the first game?
I think it’s a great challenge and I think the guys will be excited. It’s a great opportunity to compete against the champions of the last World Cup and I think our guys are going to have a lot of energy, they’re going to be excited and they’re going to be ready to play, so we’re looking forward to it. I think every World Cup game is important. You can’t say one is any more important than the other. You can’t overlook any team. It’s a World Cup game and everybody’s got to be ready to go. Whether you think they’re the strongest opponent or the weakest opponent, it’s the World Cup and all the games are very important and very competitive and anything could happen, especially if you’re not ready to play. Having a clear four days to train before our game against Nigeria will help us a lot.

Good luck to both teams.
Let the worthy team win.