Sports
AFCON: Rohr Rules Out New Players
Super Eagles head coach, Gernot Rohr, has ruled out bringing in new players to bolster his squad ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The three-time African champions are returning to the tournament after missing back-to-back editions in 2015 and 2017.
They won the competition during their last appearance in 2013 in South Africa.
Despite admitting that he has goalkeeping concerns – with first-choice Francis Uzoho struggling for regular football this season, Rohr is not ready to call up another goalkeeper.
“We have a little challenge because our young goalkeeper Uzoho has not really played at his club this season.”
“Uzoho made one mistake in the last qualifier (against Seychelles) but we gave him a chance with the U-23 side and it was good for his confidence.
“Daniel Akpeyi is playing now for a big team in South Africa and doing very well. Our third goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa too is good, so we can work harder with them.
“We have a good spirit as a team since the World Cup, so there’s no time to bring in new players,” Rohr told Tidesports source.
The Eagles have struggled to fill the void created by the shock retirement of the country’s most capped player, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama in 2015, and the premature exit of his replacement Carl Ikeme over health reason.
A lack of experience has been highlighted as a weakness but Rohr, who led Gabon to the last eight of the 2012 Nations Cup on home soil, is focusing on turning his young team into a major force in North Africa this summer.
“We can work on every aspect to improve the team, that is why we have the friendly matches,” he added.
“We qualified without two of our most experienced players in Obi Mikel and Victor Moses. I know what pressure is because I have experienced it with Gabon as hosts in 2012 – so this (challenge) is nothing new.
“For the World Cup, our (Nigeria Football Federation) president said we could go to the semi-finals but we saw what happened – now in Egypt he says we have to win it.
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