Sports
‘Falconets, Future Of Nigeria’s Female Football Team’
The Falconets’ Chief Coach, Christopher Danjuma, on Monday in Benin described the present crop of players in the Falconets team as “players of the future’’.
The coach told the Tidesports source that the players were not only technically and tactically gifted but highly intelligent as well.
“The team is what I can call `work-in-progress’, but Nigeria has a lot to hope with this set of players.
“Apart from the discipline the players exhibited all through the just-ended 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, they are always willing to learn and they also try to improve on their past performances.
“I see a future of Nigeria in this present team of under-20 girls. It is evident from the games they play that they don’t just score goals but work the goals as a team,” he said.
Danjuma, who said he never nursed any fears about his opponents prior to the commencement of the qualifiers, described the fixture against Moroccans as the most tasking.
“The Moroccans are not difficult per se, but the big challenge is in the sense that we have the opportunity to take them up in Rabat but we did not.
“There was now a delay in getting goals as we came to Benin for the second leg.
“The Moroccan players are individually technically good. They are sound individually.
“So, I will not say it was a difficult match, but a stretched one because the goals did not come on time and this in a way stretched the players’ mentality.
“You know we are a team that always scored in the first half of every one of our matches.”
On his plans for the team, the coach said the team would be beefed up before the World Cup to be hosted by France in August.
He said his desire was not just to qualify for the World Cup, but to make an impact by either matching or surpassing the country’s previous achievement at the tournament.
“It is good that we know what is at stake. It is not just to qualify in Africa, not just to be a good representative, but to make an impact at the global stage.
“As we are now done with the qualifiers, we will go back to the drawing board to begin to build on successes recorded from the qualifiers.
“We will beef up the squad, and we will be doing 70 per cent beefing up because this is no longer African affair, and we will be facing the world next.
Sports
CAA Wants Ghana To Host 2026 Athletics Champions
The Confederation of African Athletics has invited Ghana to bid for the hosting rights of the 2026 African Athletics Championships, following a successful athletics event at the just concluded 2023 African Games.
President of Ghana Athletics, Bawa Fuseini, stated this and expressed confidence in the transformative potential of the Legon Stadium for athletes and Ghana’s bid to host international competitions.
With a capacity of 11,000, the Legon Stadium played a pivotal role in the recent African Games, hosting both the opening and closing ceremonies as well as various sporting events including athletics, football, and rugby.
Fuseini highlighted the success of the athletics events held at the stadium, which contributed to Ghana winning six medals.
“We have already started getting requests from the Confederation of African Athletics to bid for the 2026 African Athletics Championships.
“When they came and saw what we have put in place and the level of organisation, they told me that for the last 20 years, they’ve never seen any organisation like this before. We did three official courses. And the last one, we had 110, all of them passed. We had a lot of officials and equipment.”
Since its establishment in 1979, Ghana has never hosted the African Athletics Championships, with Nigeria being the host country twice, in 1989 and 2018.
This year, Cameroon will take the reins as the host nation, with the event set to be held at the Olembe Stadium.
Sports
‘I’m Not Under Pressure To Coach Eagles’
Finidi George, head coach of the Nigeria Premier Football Leagues side, Enyimba, has stated that he is not losing any sleep over getting the Super Eagles job on a permanent basis.
Early this month, the Nigeria Football Federation declared the position of the Super Eagles’ head coach vacant, following the exit of Portuguese Jose Peseiro, who led the side to a second-place finish at the 2023 Africa Cup Nations in Ivory Coast in February.
In an advertisement on its website calling for applications with a March 13 deadline, the football governing body stated that the prospective Eagles coach “must have proven experience at the elite level of football.”
The former Ajax man, who also applied for the job, was appointed Eagles interim coach for the international window with the former winger picking a win and suffering a defeat.
In an interview with Tidesports source, the 52-year-old tactician said he was not desperate for the job permanently.
“I felt really good when I was told to take charge of the team. I have been with the team for almost two years, I know all the players, their strengths, and their weaknesses but I am only here to serve Nigeria the way I know how to do stuff.
“I will just take these two games and go back to my club. Whatever the decision is taken after, so be it. I’m not under pressure to say I must get the role permanently.”
Sports
‘Reasons Why Eagles Lost To Mali’
The friendly games against Ghana and Mali were to serve as an audition for George Finidi, who was in charge of the team on an interim basis, but the Eagles’ lacklustre display in those friendlies has called for his further evaluation.
Finidi kept faith with ex-coach Jose Peseiro’s defensive formation against Mali on the back of his first win (against Ghana) in charge of the team four days earlier.
But this time, his defence was punished following a combination of defensive errors and poor passes.
The Eagles struggled to play out of defence due to the high pressing of the Malians and it was no surprise that the first goal by Les Aigles was a direct result of their aggression.
Chidozie Awaziem, who started on the right of the back three alongside Kenneth Omeruo and Semi Ajayi, lacked composure and was pressured into making a pass across his box straight at Bilal Toure, who made no mistake in getting the ball past Stanley Nwabali. They missed the calming presence of injured William Troost-Ekong.
Vice captain, Kenneth Omeruo, was also culpable of misplaced passes and was beaten for pace when Kamory Doumbia ran past him to seal Mali’s first win in over four decades, firing his shot past a helpless Nwabali, who stood no chance.
Eagles wing backs, Bright Osayi-Samuel and Jamilu Collins also did not do enough to support the team in attack when they had the chance to.
Lack of creativity
Finidi paired Raphael Onyedika and Wilfred Ndidi in a double pivot in midfield. Both players are naturally anchor men and neither is a box-to-box midfielder.
They both do not possess the offensive capability to drive the team’s attack forward, which left the Eagles once again craving for a natural creative midfielder.
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