Sports
CAF Champions League: Sundowns Survive, Rivers Utd Crashes
The African Champions League title-holders, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, survived a scare in Kampala on Saturday as they drew 1-1 at KCCA to progress to the group phase of this year’s competition.
Sundowns went to Uganda leading 2-1 from penultimate weekend’s home leg, with the Kampala City outfit buoyed by their away goal.
It was KCCA who went ahead in the second leg of the last-32 tie, leaving the defending champions stunned.
Geoffrey Sserunkuma, who had scored in all three of Kampala City’s African Champions League games during this campaign, netted again after half an hour to make it 1-0 on the day and 2-2 on aggregate.
Crucially, because of their away-goal, that strike also meant that if the score stayed that way, KCCA would oust the holders and advance to the last sixteen.
However, the hosts’ fairy-tale run came to an end ten minutes from time when substitute Anthony Laffor of Liberia smashed the ball into the net to equalise and give Sundowns a 3-2 aggregate lead.
That was how the match ended, with Laffor later revealing what his coach Pitso Mosimane had urged him to do before coming off the bench.
“I’m happy to have been trusted to make the difference,” Laffor said on Sundowns’ official twitter feed.
“The coach said to me that I must get in the box and fight,” the Liberian added.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Bakry Al Madina scored a hat-trick as Al Merrikh of Sudan trounced Rivers United of Nigeria 4-0 to snatch a group place.
Merrikh qualified 4-3 on aggregate after a dramatic recovery from a three-goal first leg loss last weekend in the last-32 tie.
Experienced Al Madina opened the scoring after eight minutes in Omdurman and completed his hat-trick on the stroke of half-time.
USM Alger of Algeria, the 2015 runners-up, secured a group slot despite playing 65 minutes with 10 men in a 1-0 defeat by Rail Kadiogo in Burkina Faso.
Amir Sayoud, who scored in a 2-0 first leg win by USM, was sent off after two yellow cards and Mohamed Kahan scored the Kadiogo goal on 53 minutes.
Hopes of a Madagascar club reaching the group stage for the first time were dashed when CNaPS Sport were held 1-1 by Coton Sport of Cameroon in Antananarivo.
Coton took a 1-0 first leg lead and doubled their overall advantage when Souleymanou Moussa struck on the hour mark.
Zanaco of Zambia were another team to progress, although they could only draw 0-0 with Young Africans of Tanzania in Lusaka.
The Zambians won on away goals after drawing 1-1 in Dar es Salaam a week ago.
Another nine second legs were decided yesterday.
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
