Sports
Eaglets Pipes New Zealand …Pick Q/Final Ticket
Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets yesterday at the National Stadium, Abuja secured a quarter final ticket at the on-going Under -17 World Cup after they white –washed New Zealand by 5-0.
Edafe Edgbedi’s 14th minute goal gave the Eaglets the lead after the attacker sold a dummy to the New Zealand defence before taking a sliced left foot shot to the keepers extreme right.
The assured underdogs raised their game and mounted pressure seeking an equalizer, but they could not , as the Eaglets snatched the game off them and piled more pressure, resulting in a 24th minute goal scored by Stanley Okoro, before Edgbedi scored his brace in the 28th minute to go in the break three goals up.
On resumption in the second half, the Eaglets became more aggressive and played a more purposeful football.
They maintained their dominance of the beginning of the second stanza, following which substitute Sani Emmanuel scored his own brace in the 75th and 79th minute.
All through the game, the Europeans fought like wounded lions to at least have a consolation goal, but to no avail.
The fact that they were one man down from the 35th minute did not help matters either.
The centre referee had given a straight red card to Cameron Lindsay for attacking Okoro from behind.
By the end of the game, the Eaglets shone like a million stars contrary to pre-match insinuation that given their inability to find the net during the group stage, New Zealand could be a stumbling block to the team retaining the title they won two years ago in South Korea.
With this outstanding win, Nigerians seem unanimous that perhaps the Eaglets may be the first team to retain the trophy back –to-back since its inception in 1985 which the Eaglets won.
Tonye Orabere
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