Sports
Wikki Tourists’ Pre-Season Form Excites Boss
Wikki Tourists boss, Usman Abd’Allah has hailed the contributions of his players and other backroom staff in their effort to raise a formidable team that will be good enough to compete for the Nigeria Professional Football League title or grab a continental ticket at the end of the season.
The Giant Elephants held Katsina United to a goalless draw on Monday in the Governor Masari Pre-season Tournament and Abd’Allah informed the tourney’s media team that he is gradually building a team that will be able to compete with any team in the topflight.
He said that he had spelt out areas they must improve on especially ensuring that the strikers are more potent in front of goal and he noted that the tournament will belp boost the fitness level of his players.
“The essence of preseason friendlies are to help boost the fitness level of the players, cohesion of the team and the integration of the new players. We still have some work to do maybe with the finishing part because we have been creating chances,” Abd’Allah informed Governor Masari Pre-season Tournament Media.
“Generally I will say it is impressive what we have been able to achieve thus far with a new team a relatively low budget. Football is all about winning. We were unlucky to miss the last minute chance that hit the frame of the goal post because had it gone in it would have been 1-0 and the whole story would have been different.
“It is fair because Katsina United came with virtually a new team that was divided into two teams. They have done well and the game would have gone either side. We are happy no violence in the game.”
The former Enyimba coach thumbed up the organisers of the Governor Masari Preseason Tournament but still pointed areas that must be improve on to make the tournament international standard in the next edition.
“It is fantastic that within a short frame of time they have been able to organise this and set it up I’m very impressed with it. I hope that next season when we shall come for the Governor Masari Pre-season Tournament again, I think by then the whole nation will be here.
“I also hope that we are going to be having referees from other states as from the next edition of the tournament.
“We are hoping to come out with good results and if we win it, it will be a morale booster. We are hoping to compete favourably with other teams in the league and it will be a delight to either win the league or qualify the team for the continent,” he concluded.
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