Sports
Cup Of Nations Fall-out: Doomsday Postponed For Super Eagles
Shuaibu Amodu can breathe a sigh of relief temporarily after his less than impressive ‘Super’ Eagles managed to scrape out a dour single-goal victory over their regional neighbours, the Squirrels of Benin. But can any Nigerian truly assert that they too can breathe freely?
Many football fans would no doubt answer in the negative, as the display of the team was only typical of the level of competence of the man in charge. With this victory, Amodu and his gang of Chicken-breeders have only succeeded in pushing forward doomsday one game further.
Though there was a slight improvement in the team’s play relative to the first outing against the current champions, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the team still maintained that incoherent and untidy attitude. The lack of technical play in the team was all too evident, and the team was unable to manage one single counter-attack during the entire game. They were static, with no fluidity amongst the various departments; reflective of Amodu himself, who wore a perplexed expression throughout the game.
The Nigerian team’s showing was as interesting as watching paint dry. The side provided little exciting soccer artistry, if they still remember what that is, and it was just the individual determination from certain players that kept the side going.
Without any form of prejudice, I boldly assert that the better team lost on the day. The Beninoise team were unfortunate not to have won the game, and a little more experience on their side would have come in handy. Had Stephane Sesegnon and Rasaq Omotoyossi been a tad more clinical in their finishing, the Eagles would have broken through new lows.
Danny Shittu was undoubtedly the best player on the Nigerian side, closely followed by Dickson Etuhu, who was doing the quiet and yet dirty job in the middle of the pack. If these two players had not instilled their individual brilliance on the day, Nigerian fans would have been singing a much different song now.
Much like the first game, Yakubu Aiyegbeni still continued to show his poor form, missing arguably the best chance of the evening for the Nigerians. My grandmother would have tucked away the sitter he threw away early in the first half.
His penalty kick that gave the team the game’s goal was also far from impressive, and only the poor judgment from the Beninoise goalkeeper ensured the ball lazily strolled into the back of the net.
We should remain truthful to ourselves at this moment. The Nigerian team is still in tatters, and the short-term remedy lies in a total overhaul of the technical bench.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor