Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets survived a huge scare from Germany in their opening match of the FIFA U-17 World Cup after coming back from three goals down to grab a point in a 3-3 draw in the second Group A match played at the Abuja National Stadium, yesterday. On a day Mother Nature almost marred the opening day of the 13th FIFA U-17 World Cup, with a heavy downpour, which forced the suspension of the Eaglets’ match for 30 minutes, fans were stunned as the reigning U-17 world champions went 2-0 down to the European champions before half time courtesy of goals from Leonard Thy in the 22nd minute and Shkrondran Mustafi 17 minutes later. After the second goal fans started trooping out of the stadium, clearly unimpressed with the performance of John Obuh’s wards, while those still remaining inside the arena resulted to booing the Nigerian youngsters’ every touch of the ball. In the second half things appeared to go from bad to worst when the Eaglets slipped further behind following a lovely strike from Mario Gotze. But then a miracle occurred when Robert Labus was sent off in the 53rd minute following a professional foul. Stanley Okoro calmly put the resultant spot kick away to kick start the fight back. Five minutes later Kenneth Omeruo made it two, while Egbedi levels the game in the 61st minute. As things stand the Eaglets now lie joint second with Germany with a lone point while Argentina tops after beating Honduras 1-0 courtesy of a 67th minute goal by Sergio Araujo. Incidentally, both Honduras’ Coach, Eugenio Umanzor and his Argentine counterpart, Jose Brown blamed yesterday’s down pour on the lone score line in the opening match of the U-17 championship. And in action at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Switzerland stunned Mexico 2-0 while Brazil survived a spirited performance by Japan before winning 3-2 in Group B. Meanwhile, before the action on the field, a very colourful ceremony, which witnessed traditional displays from the various tribes of the country heralded the three-week competition. However, failure of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to adequately publicise the competition and announcing the roads that will be closed on time became obvious when residents woke up to find that most of the major roads within the metropolis had been closed. Meanwhile, FIFA has expressed disappointment with the non-availability of wireless service at the media tribune in Abuja. A very upset FIFA official when contacted by the media to find a solution to the problem said: “It is the duty of the LOC to ensure that everything works but unfortunately that is not the case. You can write it in your report because FIFA is very unhappy about this!” And from Enugu the tales of woe continued when members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) yesterday expressed dismay over the inability of the Enugu-sub seat local organising committee to accredit them to cover the matches billed to be played at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium Enugu. Source: Thisdayonline.com