Sports
England’s Player Predicts Difficult Falcons Clash
England forward, Lauren James, says the Super Falcons will be very tough opponents for the Lionesses when both sides faceoff in the round of 16 of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Tidesports source reports.
The two countries remain unbeaten so far at the women’s football showpiece in Australia and New Zealand.
Randy Waldrum’s side finished second in Group B with five points behind co-hosts Australia, while England are winners of Group D after winning all their three games.
The winners of the highly anticipated clash in Brisbane next Monday will book a place in the quarter-finals of the competition.716-Year-Old Apprentice Allegedly Raped by Mistress’ Suicide In Oyo | Punch
Nigeria crashed out of the last edition of the Women’s World Cup in France after they lost 3-0 to Germany at the same stage of the competition four years ago and will hope to do better this time.
Meanwhile, England claimed a fourth-place finish after losing their third-place match against Sweden.
While the 11-time African champions will hope to improve on their best World Cup performance where they were eliminated in the quarter-finals in 1999, England are aiming to win the competition for the first time, having reached the quarter-finals three times and the semi-finals twice.
Speaking after the Lionesses’ emphatic 6-1 victory over China in their final group game, the Chelsea Women’s forward admitted that the Super Falcons would be difficult opponents for the European champions.
“Nigeria is going to be very tough, to be fair every team has been tough, even watching the other games,” James was quoted as saying by englandfootball.com.
“Teams are catching up with each other and I know that will be another very difficult game.”
The last time the two countries met in the tournament was in the group stage 28 years ago with the Lionesses edging the contest 3-2 to progress to the knockout stages at the expense of the Falcons.
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