Sports
S’Africa To Face Uphill Task: CAF U-23 Championship
South Africa’s national side will face an uphill battle at the CAF Under-23 Championship in Morocco if comments by Egypt coach Hany Ramzy are anything to go by.
The Young Pharaohs are in Group B with South Africa, Ivory Coast and Gabon, and the coach says all three of Egypt’s opponents are very gifted technically.
“Ivory Coast (whom South Africa-glug meet in their opening game yesterday are one of the strongest sides on the continent in this age-group and we’ve got reason to believe that South Africa are also very talented and play attractive football. Gabon beat the Zambians to get here and that was no easy feat,” Ramzy told Tidesports source.
“All three are strong sides and there’s not much difference between them. Moreover they all have a lot of Europe-based professionals.
“I expect it will be a very hard-fought tournament. All eight sides are looking to progress and qualify for London 2012. Moreover, they all play outstanding football, in particular Nigeria, who have a lot of experience at Olympic football tournaments.
“Morocco, of course, have the home advantage and Algeria are not far from home themselves.”
Egypt are favourites in Group B, based on their last two games where Ramzy’s side stood in for the Pharaohs’ senior side against Niger and Sierra Leone in the 2012 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and from which Bafana Bafana exited.
“We benefitted [from those two games] in terms of skill and fitness, not to mention the experience of travelling abroad, the nerves, and playing in front of a packed stadium.
“The 3-0 victory over Niger restored the team’s self-belief, especially since Niger ended up qualifying from that group. The matches will be tough but if we get off to a good start in the opening game against Gabon, it will be a huge boost for us.”
Ramzy is confident that his side has enough punch up-front to make an impact.
“We’ve got at least three forwards: Marwan Mohsen, who is Petrojet’s main striker, Ahmed Sherwida from Al Masry and Ali Afifi from Arab Contractors.
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
