 And we're back with the second leg. Monday Thomas joins us this morning as we talk sports. Monday Thomas, how are you today and thank you for joining us? I'm feeling great. I'm great this morning. I mean, election Steve, I'm excited for it, but I'm also very excited about what is happening in Africa as far as the Honour 20 is concerned. Great, great, great to be here. Well, quickly let's get straight to the crocs then. 11 home base players will make the Tigers squad for the World Cup qualifiers. How does this make you feel? I mean, it's a mixed feeling for me. You know, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with we're going for home base players, but there is certainly something wrong when we don't have the structure or when we don't have the machinery to ensure that this find talent. Without a doubt, that jury is a country full with a feel with talent. Left-right center, is it football or basketball? We've got talent, but we don't have the right structure, especially in basketball. We don't have a working league. We don't have a league that is as close to let's say the world standard. I mean, if you go back in time, you wouldn't see an idea of featuring in the current basketball league. There is a particular basketball league that happens in Africa, and we only saw reverse hoopers in the first edition, of course, and they made a mess of them themselves. All I'm saying is that there is no structure in the league in the country. And how good are these home base players? Mercy, we're talking about the World Cup, and we're talking about the final qualification series that will be starting today by 2 p.m. for the D Tigers. And now you're talking about 11 home base players and one free agent that plays in the United States of America. It's not good enough for me. Now, I'm going to repeat that I'm not absolutely, I'm not totally against going for home base players, but home base players that don't have a great platform in the country, what are we going to expect from them in Angola later on this afternoon? It's interesting to hear a sports analyst express lack of confidence in the national team that is made up of 11 home base players and just one free agent. But you guys are the ones who were hammering out raw for not taking a lot of our local league players into consideration. Because you guys hounded him out of a job. Yes, you guys hounded him out of a job. Coffee, basketball is different. I mean, in Nigeria we have walking leagues. I mean, we have the tough line leagues. We see football every season. Our local league, the MPFL, really? Yes. And for this season, unless we see football every season, we see basketball football every season in Nigeria. But in basketball, you will not hear of a good league. You will not hear of a league season every year. You will not hear of it. So I'm just saying that what happens when these players are not having the right platform here? I mean, reverse hoopers, they're doing well. The likes of Goomba Bulls, the likes of the lawyer with Quarra Falcons, I mean, these are working basketball clubs in Nigeria. But we don't have the competitiveness where these basketball teams in Nigeria come to compete so that we can have at least a good basketball, good basketball because you have to go in there and compete. No matter how good you are, let's see how good you are, compete with all our teams, and we don't see that level of competitiveness here in the country. So that's what I'm really worried about. There's nothing wrong once again. I'm going to say it. I mean, I like the fact that these players are going to have exposure, but this is the world of quantifiers. We have Nigerian players who are doing well in the NBA, the likes of Goomba. So what is the problem? Because in recent times, in previous years, you see a lot of these guys come back home and play for the national team. So what happened? I mean, Udoka has played, Hakim the Dream of Lajian, we're even going way back. In recent years, you've seen that the Americans have been brought in. So what's the problem this time? I think the problem is the administration. They've not really shown us how important playing for Nigeria is, especially for basketball. And now when you play in the NBA, now in the NBA, it is considered as the best league in the world. So people will not even want to play for their country. In football, it's different. Playing for your country helps your CV, but in the NBA, playing for NBA, it's all you need for your CV. So these players, if you need a little bit of pride, these players will need a little bit of encouragement. These players will need a little bit of telling them how important playing for your country is. And the administration is not doing that. The administration is not following talent in the United States. I mean, when we now get a certain Get Vincent, who is playing for the Miami Heights, we try to convince them to come play for the Super Bowl D Tigers. They won't want to come because they didn't make their name. You were not there in their story. So how come you just want to come get the glory of where they already made basketball? So it's going to take a little bit of seriousness, and we're going to start playing these young players in the United States now that it's very early, because where have you made players already? You can't tell them anything anymore. Well, let's move away from the Tigers now and look at the Afghan at it. And then you have the young Ferros of Egypt who have lost or suffer the 1-0 to loss to the flying Eagles of Nigeria in their group A stage and or encounter. Now, what exactly are your thoughts? We had anticipated that. I mean, we know that Egypt's national is not a weak team that you walk past. But as much as a lot of persons were not very optimistic about this one, you know, it feels like a plus for us. What are your thoughts? Do you think that we can progress from this? You know, for a state to another team is a good team now. The Egyptian team is not that good. I mean, even the senior boys, you only get to hear of Guamert, Salah, Eleni and the rest. But when we talk of how great Egyptian football was, let's say about 10 years ago, then you can talk about how good they were. But now I don't think they're a really good side. I watched that game, all created to Latin Bozo, and all created to Solomon Abomalaka, who has been, I mean, trolled on the internet for not being a 20-year-old. That's not my business. But my business is that he did great on the pitch of play, given Nigeria, that won't go win against Egypt. But I think the game that I really saw the weakness of from the flying Eagles was a game against the Senegalese side. And we also needed to learn something from me. The Senegalese side were better than us. They were more composed in the midfield. They were more calculated. But the flying Eagles were not. They were a little bit calculated against the Egyptians. Although the Egyptians had more chances than they did, they were just very clinical. So going forward, we are playing against Mozambique tomorrow. And I'm seeing Nigeria progressing past our beating Mozambique to progress to the knockout stage. But what happens in the knockout stage when you get to meet other big countries from other groups? So it's going to be a little bit difficult if we don't get to correct our mistakes, if we don't get to be a little bit more serious, a little bit clinical, and a little bit more urgent in our play. We are not decisive. The kind of football we have played, we play football as if we don't want to score. And then when we get a chance, a lucky chance, like Salam Mbalaka did, that crossed with so many attempts at Nigeria had corners and they couldn't convert it. So I felt it was a lucky one for me for that corner to come out and for Salam to, of course, get that goal. But since he had created a lot of Mbalaka, so he has been able to come back from a defeat against Senegal to beat the host nation, Egypt. So let's just see tomorrow what happens. Nigeria play against Mozambique. Mozambique, not really a good side in the competition so far. Losing by three goals against Senegal. And playing an illegal draw against the host nation, Egypt. So there might not be a minor, but I'm seeing Nigeria, we take them to progress to the knock off stage. All right, this seems to be, last week we were here talking about how it was going to be difficult for a tough test for the under 20 and the flying eagles, you know, because of the fact they're playing against the Egyptians at home at the Cairo International Stadium. And they've gone ahead to defeat the Egyptians in their backyard. And what do you think this says about the character of this team and their prospects for qualifying for the World Cup and also winning the title? For the World Cup, it's very important. And the prospect of this team, I've got to stop by saying that the leader of the team is an experienced woman, a lot of both. So he knows what winning is all about. He knows how to win. And when we talk about qualifying, we need to finish as top four teams. So that is qualifying to the semifinals. We're already halfway through. All we need to do is get past Mozambique and get past our next opening to the quarterfinals. So just two games away. And I'm pretty sure the boys understand that it's not very far away. The World Cup later on this year in Peru, it is very important for Nigeria and the people of Nigeria and as well as people playing the tournament so far, it's a win-win situation. They make the country proud. They make themselves proud. And then there are potential properties in the transfer market. So the head coach, a lot of them also understand how important this is to Nigeria and to display us. So I'm pretty sure it's going to be able to conceal some level of motivations, letting them know, hey, you've got to do well if you want to go further. And that's the prospect I'm looking at. That's the aspect I'm looking at. Ensure that these players know what it means to play for the country and know what it means to play as they are developing their own career. All right. But it's still a bit too close to call because I mean, it's the group stages. Tournament football is quite, quite difficult. The Singaporeans have qualified. They've wrapped it up. Two wins from two matches, defeating Nigeria, albeit against 10 men, and of course, defeating Mozambique. Should we be really cautious in our optimism for the flying eagles? Looking at the fact that they have one game to go against Mozambique, you seem to have given them the three points already. But if Senegal fail to defeat Egypt and lose, Egypt will have four points. And if Nigeria lose to Mozambique, Nigeria will have three points. Mozambique, four points. Should we be as optimistic as you're making it sound? I mean, I told you that Mozambique not really had a good tournament, but it doesn't mean we should completely underrate them. I also told you that if Adam Boso can get the voice to be a little bit more calculating, a little bit more clinical, they can get the win against Mozambique. I mean, it's possible that we can get the win against Mozambique. I'm not completely giving it to them, but I'm at least 85% sure that Nigeria can beat Mozambique. And you talked about us, you should be a little bit cautious. I mean, when you play against Mozambique and you know that you need a win because we know that Nigerians were very used to getting calculators at the end or at the dining embers of a particular tournament. So in order for us to avoid the calculations, we should go in from the first blast of the whistle and look for an outright win. A drug can also see Nigeria progress, but that is depending on the Senegal and the Senegal and Egypt results, but we should go for an outright win. All right. We have to go now. Mandi, Thomas, thank you so much for being part of the show. It's always a delight to speak with you every Friday. All right. Merci and Kofi. Thank you so much for having me on the platform again. You had yourself a great Friday. All right then. That's the size of it on the breakfast this morning. And of course, we thank you so much for being with us this morning or for being with us all through the week, Monday to Friday. And of course, we'll see tomorrow in a different dimension where we would be. You sound like you're going to go enough for the weekend. You're coming to work tomorrow, Merci. Yes, I'm coming tomorrow. I'm sure every Sunday you need to be here as well, until the results are announced. Yeah. So we'll be back tomorrow. Why is every Sunday we're improving? I'm not sure that we're going to be doing. Did you say every Sunday? We have election coverage tomorrow right here in plus, in Africa. No, that's very true. It's going to be very interesting. So you make sure you join Merci and the rest of the team right here tomorrow morning. Yes, please. And the election studio would open up this evening and will start off from seven o'clock in the morning up until, you know, Sunday. Just be sure to stay glued to this station right here. Number again is 408 on DSTV and 308 on Star Times. My name is Messy Ibukwo. You can follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel at Plus TV Africa, Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. We'll join the newsroom at nine o'clock for the news brief. Have a good morning. And my name is Kofi Bartels. Have a very free and valent free election tomorrow. Good morning.