U-17 FriendliesAugust 31Nigeria vs. RwandaSeptember 2Nigeria vs. RwandaTHE national U-17 national side has lined up two friendly matches against Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets on August 31 and September 1 in Lagos as part of preparations for the 2013 CAF Under-17 World Cup qualifier.The development was confirmed by head coach Richard Tardy on Monday. Tardy said, "Our focus is now on U-17 team. We want to see how we can get through to the African tournament. "We have difficult qualifying matches but early preparations will help us to reach our ambition”."The matches against Nigeria are aimed at helping us access the level of our young players as well as boost their fitness and proper conditioning of the team”.The Golden Eaglets who face Niger in the upcoming 2013 CAF Under-17 World Cup qualifier against Niger have started preparations in Calabar.The Golden Eaglets plan to travel to Kigali for another friendly after their match against Niger.Last month, Nigeria’s U20 team took on their Rwandese counterparts in a warm-up game before their AYC qualifier in Tanzania.The U-17 national team do not have it easy as they were pitted against Southern African nations. The winner between Malawi and Botswana will host Rwanda in the second round of the qualifiers of the 2013 African U-17 Championship which will be held in Morocco in the weekend of October 12-14.The U-17’s success against the winner between Malawi and Botswana would see them land a tricky third round tie against the winner between Sudan/Somalia and Algeria to be played in November.Tardy, who guided Rwanda to last year’s Fifa U-17 World Cup finals in Mexico, faces a tough challenge as he wants to maintain the same remarkable performance by guiding the junior team to first qualify for the main African tournament.The U-17 team has been in residential training at Hill Top hotel and trains daily at Ferwafa turf.