Sports
Super Eagles’ll Continue To Improve -Rohr
Nigeria manager, Gernot Rohr insists his team has a bright future ahead of them despite being eliminated from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Super Eagles, upon their return to the AFCON for the first time since 2013, were the victims of a last-gasp goal from Riyad Mahrez in their 2-1 semifinal defeat to Algeria on Sunday night.
The squad Nigeria sent to the 2019 AFCON had just three survivors from the 2013 team which won the tournament in South Africa, and no less than 15 of the 23 players on the roster are 25 or younger.
This points to a bright future for the Super Eagles, as they look toward the 2021 AFCON and 2022 World Cup.
“I have a young team that will continue to improve and one that will surely get better,” said Rohr in the wake of the loss to the North Africans.
He said: “We are sad that we lost. In my players’ mind, they were already thinking about extra time, but we lost in the last minute to a wonderful free-kick scored by a special player.”
The German added: “Against South Africa [in the quarterfinals], we scored late to win the game, today we conceded late. These things happen in football. I want to congratulate the Algerian team for winning the game and proceeding to the final.
“They played better in the first half and made things difficult for us. We conceded an own goal which was difficult to take.
“We had a good second half and scored a goal from the spot. We have shown strong character by coming back from difficult situation in this tournament and we did the same against Algeria.
“We have learnt a lot from this experience and will do better in future. This team is young but will get better.”
Nigeria will close their AFCON campaign with the third-place playoff against Tunisia in Cairo on Wednesday night.
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