Sports
Falconets Eye 2014 World Cup
Head Coach of the
Falconets, Peter Dedevbo, has said in Abuja that he was for now focused on putting together his team and not what his opponents were doing.
Dedevbo told newsmen that he and his national under-20 women football team would not be distracted by the recent change of opponents by CAF.
The Falconets will face their Sierra Leonean counterparts in the qualifiers for next year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals in Canada.
The team were earlier billed to face Burkina Faso, before continental governing body CAF informed them of a change in the fixtures owing to Burkina Faso’s withdrawal.
Nigeria will now host the first leg game at the Abuja National Stadium on October 26.
Dedevbo said the Falconets were rather concentrating on their preparations for now.
“We are not focusing on who becomes our opponents, but on what we are going to do to make the team better,’’ he said.
The former coach of the national under-17 women’s team said he and the coaching crew still had a lot of work to do to mould the present squad to a world-class team.
“Each match, like the game against Sierra Leone, presents something for both the technical crew and players to think about and learn from,’’ he said.
Dedevbo however said he had requested for video tapes of matches involving the Sierra Leonean team from the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to enable them prepare adequately for the qualifier.
“My coaching colleagues and I will spend some time to look at the tapes when they arrive, so as to prepare for the game, since we have not seen much of the Sierra Leoneans before,’’ he said.
Speaking also, Patience Okaeme, one of the players in the Falconets’ camp in Abuja, said that she and the others were in high spirits ahead of the qualifier.
The player of Delta Queens female football club of Asaba said they would do everything possible to ensure that they qualify.
“We have been going through rigorous training here in the camp and I am confident that, at the end of it all, our efforts will be justified,’’ she said.
Reports say that the Falconets will play the second leg game in Freetown on November 9.
Super Eagles match against Kenya in Calabar recently
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