Sports
Tornadoes Fight-Back To Stun Shooting Stars
Niger Tornadoes needed two second half goals to secure a home win over hard fighting Shooting Stars last Sunday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna in a Nigeria Premier Football League Matchday 27 rescheduled tie.
The visitors scored first through Christian Pyagbara in the 39th minute and held on throughout the remaining part of the first half but Tornadoes came back strongly in the second half.
The Minna side then got the needed equaliser in the 76th minute through Clinton Jephtar before Ikenna Offor’s 92nd minute strike handed the Ikon Allah Boys the three points.
Meanwhile, Remo Stars’ head coach, Daniel Ogunmodede has stated that it took his players sometime to get into the groove in their 2-0 home over Bendel Insurance last Sunday night.
The Sky Blue Stars endured a torrid time against plucky Benin Arsenals before Adams Olamilekan and Hadi Haruna’s goals in the final 10 minutes of the game conjured up a home win which lifted them to the third spot with 45 points from 26 games.
“We just made sure I got three points. Every game comes with different situations and moments. It is what the game entails and most time we do not control over the game’s outcome. The players have control over it. That is what the players have done,” Ogunmodede told journalists.
He continued: “We were coming into the game at the back of our loss to Shooting Stars. It was a painful loss to us. The players really wanted to get back to their winning ways. For me, they were a little under pressure and during the game, we realised we could go back to the top three while we were receiving information that other teams’ results were not favourable.
“The most important thing is how they dealt with the pressure.
“It is for tactical reasons. It is what they do in training and that is what they have been thought to do. We are happy coming up on the ladder but we know where we want to be. We keep our eyes on the target regardless of how the game ended.”
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