Sports
2021 Ughelli Pre-Season Cup: Coach Hails Excellent FC Over Win
Head coach of Excellent FC of Ughelli and champions of the recently concluded football tournament tagged 11th edition of Ughelli Pre- Season Cup, James Onome, has commended his team for their impressive performance at the competition.
Coach Onome made the commendation during an interview with Tidesports yesterday in Port Harcourt, after his team defeated Go-Round FC of Omoku, 1-0 at the finals of the competition played Sunday at the Ughelli Township Stadium, Delta State.
According to him, all teams that participated in the tournament had performed so well, saying that football is a game of win and loss and the best side would always emerge victorious at the end.
“ Football is more like survival of the fittest. There has to be a winner and a loser; the best side, Excellent. FC won the trophy,” Onome said.
The tournament, which was put together to immortalise Late Prince Anthony Obaseki for his contribution in sports, began with 16 teams to compete for honours, ended Sunday.
Before the final encounter, Go Round FC won in Group A with a 3-0-0 record and did not concede any goal, having an advantage of winning the cup. while, Excellent FC was 2-0-1 and finished in second place in Group A having lost 0-2 to Go Round FC in the opening match of the tournament. Go Round FC had a good chance of winning the trophy, but Excellent FC has the talent and pedigree to deliver.
Go Round FC, after blowing out Excellent FC 2-0 in the opener, continued their impressive run in the competition with a 1-0 win over Godspanal FC and a 3-0 walkover win against Rolly FC. There sterling performance in the group stage did set up the right atmosphere as they overcame hard fighting Goddosky FC 3-0 in the semi final.
Scoring a total of 6 goals from open play without conceding any goal not many will bet against the “Omoku Landlords” from winning the final match.
On the other hand, it was hard to believe that after losing 0-2 in their opening match, Excellent FC would still match on to the final.
Finishing second on the log in Group A, Excellent FC was in some serious momentum by defeating T Akoma 2-1 in the semi final to move on with their consistent quality in attack, though, they had a challenge with their defense, which at times can be a bit slow to react. They would have their hands full with Go Round, but they have the players to pull off the upset.
Highlight of the event was the presentation of trophy and prize Money to eventual winners of the competition.
It would be recalled that Excellent FC of Ughelli won the sixth edition of the tournament.
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