Nigeria's Sand Eagles on Sunday beat their Brazilian counterparts, Reis da Praia (Kings of the Beach) to emerge champions of the 2011 Copa Lagos Beach Soccer.
The Sand Eagles surprisingly won the game over three periods by a high margin of 9-4 over the four-time Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup champions.
It was captain Isiaka Olawale that set the tone straight from the kick-off by putting Nigeria ahead.
His goal turned out to be the fastest of the three-day tournament.
The Sand Eagles came under pressure immediately and Brazil struck the woodwork twice and forced goalkeeper Abdullahi Isah into two quick saves.
Azeez Abu stunned the South Americans with a second but Bruno trimmed the score to 2-1 immediately.
And Brazil's tactics to shoot from everywhere paid off as the first period ended 2-2.In the second period, Bruno put Brazil in the lead before Victor Tale drew level for the Sand Eagles at 3-3.Brazil keeper, Marquinhos kept his side in the game by stopping Abu's effort to leave the score at 3-3 after the second period.The Kings of the Beach went 4-3 up and Olawale made it 4-4 within seconds.And from then on, it was the Sand Eagles dominating all the way as Abu gave Nigeria the lead five minutes to the end.In defence, Ogbonna Okemmiri proved to be a monster as he played a role in stopping most of Brazil's attacking moves in the final period.Abu and Olawale, however, shared the responsibility of scoring the goals to hand Nigeria an emphatic 9-4 win over their highly-rated opponents.The win exorcised the Brazilian hoodoo on the Sand Eagles, as they grab their first win on their rivals after the loss at the 2011 Fifa Beach Soccer World quarterfinals in Ravenna, Italy.
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