Sports
Pundit Tips S’Eagles To Overcome Seychelles
The Super Eagles of Nigeria have the pedigree to defeat the pirates of Seychelles in their second group game of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.
This was said by the media manager of Rivers United and sports journalist, Sammy Wejinya, while speaking with tidesports source, yesterday.
According to him,”there are no small teams in world football anymore, I believe that the Eagles have enough to defeat their Seychelles counterparts.
“The true test of a man’s ability is when he is faced with adversity,” he said.
The sports journalist equally said this on the absence of a few first team players in the squad for Saturday’s showdown at the Stade Linte.
Most notable among the absentees is Captain, John Obi Mikel who is just recovering from an injury he sustained during the world cup and wants to focus on being fully fit.
Others include Victor Moses, who recently retired from international football and the likes of Alex Iwobi,William Troost Ekong and Ola Aina, all of whom are currently injured.
The match against the Seychelles national team will be the second match in Group E for both teams to battle to qualify for the 2019 edition of the AFCON slated to hold in Cameroon.
Bafana bafana of South Africa are currently at the top of the group after defeating the Super Eagles 2-0 in their first game at home.
According to Wejinya, losing to Seychelles will be quite unthinkable because even though there are no minnows in football anymore, the Eagles still have enough arsenal in their store to get maximum points.
The Eagles should be more committed to qualify for the continent’s elite competition at the end of the day as they have not been at the competition since lifting the trophy in 2013.
Femi Akinyemi
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