 Let's see the breakfast in plus TV Africa. It's time for us to talk sports football to be precise. The flamingos after a narrow defeat against Germany in their FIFA under 17 women's world cup opener. The girls have been urged to put their defeat to Germany behind them and go all out for a three point when they take the pitch against New Zealand counterparts today the under 17 women's world cup in India. And so it is a makeover for the Nigerians flamingos and the New Zealand today as a win for one would see the exit of the other from the game. We have Monday Thomas joining the conversation this morning. Monday it's good to have you join us. Good morning Mercy. Hope you're having a fantastic time. Definitely. Let's get straight to the crux of the matter. What would you make of the opener for the flamingos? Do you think it's a case of lack of confidence or as an issue of defense? How would you describe that game? The first 45 minutes was quite impressive. I didn't expect that from the girls but they were in all departments. They were very strong and very solid and they even went ahead to score the Germans first. A brilliant strike from the free kick by Miracle Osani. That was world class and I think they had a great time in the first 45 minutes. But you know football is a game of two halves. It can favor you in the first half and favor the opponent in the second half and that was the case right there for the German side. The second 45 minutes whatever the coach told them in the lockout room certainly worked out in the second 45 minutes. The Germans were able to score two quick goals. One in the 59 minutes and the other in the 61st minute to see them bid the flamingos who had a brilliant game even when they went down by two goals to one. They were still putting in the fight hoping that they could equalize some tactical substitutions there by the coach Bankole Oluo-Kere who I'm very confident in. I trust him because of how he qualified the ladies to this particular World Cup. I mean having a great run of form in the qualifiers dominating African football and also having a very fair outing in Turkey for the 10-day training. So a lot is expected from them and like today's game, yes a lot is expected from them. And I actually spoke with one of the number-nines Alvin Dasu and she's saying that she's expecting to just let the past be the past. Let that defeat just get behind them and they'll be looking to get a win today. Just like you said, it's going to be a make-or-mall for the flamingos. And I must let you know that the flamingos have not won any of their last five games at the under-17 World Cup. A streak that is stretching back to a three-nil defeat in the quarter-finals in the fourth edition way back in 2014. Their last victory came in the group stages of the 2014 three-nil thumping of Mexico. And since then they have scored just one goal in the last edition which was in 2016. They didn't score a goal, they didn't score a single goal in that particular one and their best result was a neonial draw against England way back in 2016. So what I'm trying to see is that the flamingos that in the World Cup or at the World Cup, they've not had that brilliant form. But by the way they qualified, by the football they played against Germany, who we know that Germany were going to be their toughest opponent. So a two-one finish was not so bad against a German side that many people were expecting that the flamingos will maybe go down by three goals in a year or four goals in a year. But the ladies were able to put up a great performance and saw them still lose that particular game. But the imagine which they lost was still very impressive for me. And against the New Zealand side who lost their first game to Chile by three goals to one. So I think Nigeria, the flamingos will just age past this particular one. I'm seeing a narrow victory for the flamingos. Just before we get to the flamingos with New Zealand because as much as we would say that yes this is Africa's you know best in putting out right there in Nigeria, you can also agree with me that New Zealand is also not a walk in the park just as Germany. They also had not to crack. But like I asked you earlier on what do you think the problem lies? Do you think it's the issue of confidence especially when you talk about you know the exposure and playing with you know a team as Germany and or where the problem is on the defense? I mean you can say that the problem with the flamingos losing to Germany was on our defense. No it was it was just football happening. I mean I think the main issue right there for the flamingos, they were over confident after seeing that in the first 45 minutes the Germans were not what people told them about. So they had a fantastic first half, they scored first and they grew and I think they were over confident to that. They would get all three points against the Germans. But you know the Germans had all the plans. So it's not a case of not having confidence. It's not a case of not having a quality defense because at all departments I think Bankola, Lua, Caris girls were top notch but they just lacked that consistency to see off the game. So they became complacent in the late minutes of that game especially from the 59 minutes where they considered the first goal and you know in a football game when you score a goal you get to build from there. You get to have momentum to go for the order and that's what the Germans did. They scored the first goal, they had momentum and they went ahead for the second one and that's how they were able to beat the flamingos. The ladies are confident, the ladies they know how to play football and they are ready to play football. A lot of persons have actually queried whether or not you know the flamingos are really a material for the World Cup. And so I'm asking do you see an exit? Do you think that this is just going to be an exit falling out of the game today? There's no exit. The flamingos are still in this. They're still in this. I told you that you may have mentioned of New Zealand who are not clearly working at Park. I agree with you because for you to play at the World Cup it means you did something great in your continent, in the Oceanic and the Asian continent. It means you did well. That's why you qualified to the World Cup. So the New Zealand are not going to be any work over but I think the flamingos have got what they take to each pass them and get their first victory and see how they can of course get a draw or another victory against the Chileans to see them qualify to the knockout stages of the Under 17 World Cup. Well so if you had the chance to be the coach of the flamingos for just you know a day, what would you be looking at? What exactly would you be putting the team through? Monday can you hear me? Yeah yeah Mercy I can dig it out. All right so I'm asking that if you had a chance to be the coach or to coach the flamingos for just a day, what exactly would you be telling them to look at? What would be your strategy? What exactly would you be doing to get us you know to that point not to fall out of the game especially on this day? Well Mercy I can't be a coach. I don't think I'll ever want to be a coach in the future. I'm just saying let's assume. Why? Because I trust Bankole. I trust Bankole coach. Bankole is a world class coach. So I think he's doing exactly what I'll be doing. He's doing exactly what I'll be doing right now with the girls. I mean I was impressed. I mean I wouldn't quickly or I wouldn't completely judge them for losing against the German side. The German side clearly where the top is open and like I said people were expecting the flamingos to lose by maybe a three-goal margin but they lost by two goals at once. So there is a lot of positive we can take out of that game. Bankole or Luocare is a world class manager and whatever he's doing right now is Monday. You're not even getting the question. No one is in doubt about the positive of the game. I'm just saying as much as you'd say that was a fantastic play whether or not we actually lost out narrowly to Germany but you can also say that you're putting your best man out there in the continent and then you're losing out. It doesn't also add up. So I'm saying what are the lacunas? What exactly have you seen? What can be done to improve the game? Let's assume the girls are listening and let's just even say you're in the position to fix one or two as fantastic as the coach may be. All right. So even if I'm saying that I would do better than the coach and this is what the coach is not doing and this is what I'll probably do that is just like saying that the coach is not fit for this particular job and I wouldn't want to say that. So what I'm saying is that I got your question clearly. I got your question clearly. Now I've been with the girls. I've followed them since their qualifying series before the World Cup and before traveling to Turkey. These ladies have been brilliant. The coach is very vocal. The coach always tries to instill confidence in them and this is what I will do as well as a coach and also the tactics on the pitch of play is a top notch with the coach. So I don't see any loophole. That's what I'm trying to say. I don't see any loophole. I don't see anything I would do better with the girls that the coach is not getting it done right now. That's what I was trying to tell you. Oh well. So I think that you're trying to just be politically correct especially when it feels like you're a major fan of you know Bankole. The truth is you can never have a system where you have absolutes. You're not absolutes you're related. So as much as the system might just be perfect and a coach there might just be you know one or two you know to put out there. But however we're wishing the girls you know a great outing today but quickly just before we could sit down it would just be on a lighter note. We saw at Old Trafford Francis Zoho a world-class goalkeeper and we saw the fact that he faced 34 shots conceding one goal making 12 saves and nine of them inside the box and so what happens because over time we see that our players get to do better when they're outside of the Nigerian league but when they come to play at home it's a different thing. What exactly can we do? What magic can we perform for Francis to actually have a performance as this for us? All right first of all Francis needs to work on himself more. I mean that was a brilliant brilliant performance. I mean world-class goalkeeping display at the Old Trafford. It was there for everyone to see that it's got what it takes to be a world-class goalkeeper and great great one for the young star who is going to be 24 in the next 14 14 days from now. He had a brilliant time at the Old Trafford and the question is can he continue this particular form to see how we can also help the Super Eagles goalkeeping problems and now what he needs to do right now is to just be consistent and I think if the coaches right there in Amona Nicosia can have so much faith in him to make him the number one goalkeeper to see him playing week in week out because some people might say you might just have been a stroke of luck for Francis Zoho. You know every footballer every goalkeeper everybody in sport know that there are some days that just come in favor of them and there are some really bad days and for you to get rid of the bad days frequently you need to put in more work. You need to be more consistent. You need to be the number one goalkeeper. You need to be a goalkeeper that is playing week in week out because football is you as good as your last game. So if you keep on playing if he becomes the number one goalkeeper of Amona Nicosia the number one goalkeeper was not fit to stand for the separate side and that's why Francis Zoho was in goal against his boyhood club Manchester United and I think he just needs to play more. He just needs to become the number one goalkeeper for Amona Nicosia because the Super Eagles the stakes are very high and there are high demands right there. I don't know it's quite disappointing that our goalkeepers right now are not number ones in their respective clubs. If we take a look at the Senegalese the Senegalese goalkeeper Edward Mendy is maybe no longer the number one goalkeeper for Chelsea but for last season and for the start of this season he was the number one goalkeeper. For big countries the number one goalkeepers are also number one in their respective clubs. Francis Zoho to be a number one goalkeeper not just a number one goalkeeper but a reliable number one. He needs to be the number one of Amona Nicosia. So first thing first he needs to get to that number one shirt of Amona Nicosia and then we'll see how we can contribute this brilliant performance the same way you did at the Old Trafford for the Super Eagles of Nigeria. Oh it didn't quite really sound like you were proud of what he did. Anyways I think you took it too serious now. Mendy we're just trying to just tease Mendy Francis at this point but that's fine. Just before we go quickly I'd like you to tip forth Flamingos. What score lines are we looking at? It's going to be a narrow victory for the Flamingos. I'm seeing a 1-0 victory or 2-1 victory in favour of Nigeria. Alright then fingers across let's see how that pans out. This game would actually be played this afternoon. I really don't know what time it will be transmitted to the sort of part of the world talking about West Africa. We will be looking at the match and let's see what happens and how the girls who make Nigeria proud were very cheering for them and supporting and we wish them the very best. Thank you so much Mendy Thomas for being part of the show. He is a sports analyst. He joins us all the way from Aquibom State. Thank you. We appreciate your time and we look forward to sharing your thoughts some other time. It's always a pleasure talking to you Mercy. I mean you're always actually really really interesting questions and I try to answer them in the safe possible way. Van Kole is still my number one and I'll stick with him. I understand the bias and that's fine. That's the much we can take at this point on the breakfast. If you missed out on it it's okay follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and do subscribe to our YouTube channel Plus TV Africa, Plus TV Africa Lifestyle and that's it. My name is Messi Boko. Have a fantastic Friday.