Nigeria's Super Eagles have the opportunity of notching an important first win in their Group B opener of the FIFA Confederations Cup Monday.
The Eagles who will later have to face South American champions, Uruguay and European and world champions, Spain in later matches will boost their opportunity of progressing by taking maximum points against a team ranked 138 in the FIFA rankings.
Nigeria's coach, Stephen Keshi, has continued to put his faith in relatively unknown players, especially from the Nigerian league as he places more emphasis on building a strong team for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Nevertheless, the African champions are still clear favourites against a team of journeymen with only one professional footballer in their ranks.
That player, Marama Vahirua, is set to make his international debut against Nigeria, having previously been unavailable due to club commitments in Europe.
It is expected that the presence of Tahiti's team of amateurs will provide three mismatches in Group B and, in terms of population, Nigeria is the biggest of the lot. Africa's most populous nation has 1,000 times more people than Tahiti, with roughly 175 million to 175,000. It's an undisputed David and Goliath clash.
Tahiti coach Eddy Etaeta is adopting a defence-first policy to avoid embarrassment in Brazil, but a 7-0 warm-up defeat against Chile's under-20 side does not bode well. Etaeta described that loss as a "spanking" and admits to having "a lot of apprehension".
Tahiti and Nigeria have never met in a senior international. However, they did play at the 2009 Under-20 World Cup in Egypt. Nigeria won 5-0. Tahiti have lost five of their last six competitive games - scoring just two goals - since winning all five of their Oceania Nations Cup games to qualify for the Confederations Cup.
Meanwhile, Nigeria are unbeaten in their last 17 games, most recently drawing 1-1 with Namibia on Wednesday. Their last defeat came in May 2012, 1-0 against Peru in Lima. The Super Eagles have played more internationals in 2013 (11) than any other team at the Confederations Cup.
Source: ThisDay
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