Sports
Women’s W’Cup: Waldrum Banks On Oshoala, Ajibade, Others
Super Falcons coach, Randy Waldrum, is banking on the prowess of Barcelona Feminine and Atletico Madrid Feminine forwards, Asisat Oshoala and Rahseedat Ajibade, as the team begins its 2023 Women’s World Cup campaign against Canada on July 21.
Nigeria is in Group B with co-hosts Australia, Canada, and the Republic of Ireland in their ninth appearance at the World Cup. Having not missed any of the previous editions of the tournament, the team is out to make a statement with an improved performance in Australia and New Zealand.
Nigeria’s best performance at the World Cup was reaching the quarter-finals in 1999.
To surpass their previous achievement, head coach Waldrum talked up the importance of Oshoala and Asisat, who are likely to form the Falcons attack along with returnee Desire Oparanozie.
The 28-year-old Oshoala will be playing in her third World Cup and ranks among the stars to watch in Australia and New Zealand, following her exploits for FC Barcelona Feminine in Spain. She helped her club win the Women’s Champions League and the league last season, scoring 25 goals in the process.
While the country awaits her to replicate her club form for the national team, Waldrum said, “Everyone knows Asisiat is so important to this team, we always expect her to score goals every time she steps on the pitch. The nation expects perfection from her in every performance.”
The American coach also hailed Ajibade, who scored 10 goals for her club in the Spanish women’s top division last season.
“I think she is one of the bright young players in the world. She is very talented, extremely gifted athletically, and has all the qualities needed to become a world-class player and I think before her career is over, a lot of people are going to know her name,” Waldrum said.
Nigeria begin its campaign against Canada Friday, July 21 before filing out against Australia on July 27 and the Republic of Ireland on July 31.
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