Sports
Int’l Youth Cup: Erico Blames Poor Planning For Team’s Loss
Joe Erico, Coach of Lagos United FC has blamed lack of long-term planning for his team’s 1-7 loss to SuperSports United of South Africa at the ongoing Lagos International Youth Cup.
Erico told newsmen after the match played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium over the weekend that the South Africans had long-term planning and a well-established football culture.
He admitted that the team did not prepare adequately for the competition.
Erico said that he decided to accept the job based on the State Government’s plan to have a structure for youth soccer development.
“Gov. Babatunde Fashola personally approached me for the job and assured me that there will be a structure for youth football development; that informed my decision to accept the job.
“Although we had bad results from our matches, the idea is not to win at all cost that was why we parade truly U-17 players.
“After this championship we will go ahead to build the team, age is certainly on their side, they are players for the future,’’ he said.
He added that the players would have a better exposure than before the championship.
“They have not lost all, they will become better players at the end of the championship in terms of exposure to international competition.
“ They will also have team work, team spirit, attitude for winning fairly and sportsmanship in defeat,’’ Erico said.
Coach Kaitano Tembo of SuperSports said the result at this stage of the players’ carrier should not be over-emphasised.
“We didn’t come here to be winning, we are here to give the players the needed exposure.
“But good enough they are playing well and winning. The team has been together for long, graduated from the U-15 to U -17, that is the progression we have,’’ Tembo said.
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