Sports
Edo Queens Beat Rivers Angels 4- 1 In Benin City
Rivers Angels fell 4 -1 to South-South neighbour, Edo Queens in a matchday 10 fixture of the Nigeria Women Football League Premiership played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The home team took an early lead in the 7th minute through Goodness Osigwe who beat the goalkeeper, Morufa Ademola to score.
While the Jewels of Rivers were trying to settle down, Goodness Osigwe doubled the host’s lead, courtesy of a defensive blunder.
However, Peace Effiong pulled one back from Sefiat Idris’s cross before the break in the 23rd minute. The Jewel of Rivers went into the break 2 – 1 down.
At the resumption of the second half, Peace Effiong had a chance in the 49th minute, but Edo Queens goalkeeper, Ijeoma Uzoma was on alert to save her shot.
There was a moment of controversy in the 56th minute after the referee adjudged Ifeoma Ikenokwalu’s foul on Miracle Joseph at the edge of the box to have happened inside the box and awarded a penalty to the home team.
Osigwe made no mistake in converting the penalty and giving the host a 3 – 1 lead.
A rejuvenated Rivers Angels came all out seeking goals after the penalty, but, Edo Queens goalkeeper Ijeoma Uzoma stood tall to deny the Jewels of Rivers numerous chances.
Amarachukwu Onuorah increased Edo Queens’ lead via a counterattack to give the host a 4 – 1 win.
Wednesday’s result got the head coach of Rivers Angels, Whyte Ogbonda pouring out his disappointment on the inability of his players to convert their numerous chances in the match.
“I think in the first five minutes of the match, my players lost concentration in the game, and the goalkeeper gave them a free goal.
“ It wasn’t up to a minute again, the defenders made a blunder which made the Edo team score the second goal”. Generally, I would say what went wrong is that we were unable to utilise all the chances we had.”
Coach Whyte Ogbonda refuted the claim that he missed his key players in Ghana for the African games who were instrumental in the reverse fixture in Port Harcourt. He insisted that all the players in his team are important.
“Well, we have 30 players in the team, every player in the team is important because they all receive salaries,” he said.
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