Sports
‘Away Form Would Decide 2016 NPFL’
For any team to win the
Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) these days, it has to have an impressive away form.
With improved officiating, teams are now more likely to pick points away from home as home invincibility no longer exists in the league.
Gone are the days a team would bank on 100 percent record at home and one or two draws away from home to win the league.
It is virtually impossible for a team to be crowned Nigeria champions in this dispensation without winning on away soil.
In fact, the more away matches a team wins, the better their chances of winning the title. There are stats to buttress this.
It will be noted that 31 away victories were recorded last season, the highest in the Premier League in the past 10 years.
Last season, Enyimba set a new league record of five away wins to win the title.
To pick the third continental ticket, Nasarawa had to fall back on a good run of away form that saw ‘The Solid Miners’ win four away games in the second round.
This term has not been different. All the top 10 teams on the table have one thing in common – they have all won an away game. The only team outside the top 10 to have won away from home are Warri Wolves.
Save for Giwa’s expulsion which meant Rangers’ 1-0 defeat of Giwa in Jos didn’t stand, the top three teams would have had two away victories each.
Wikki (2), Rangers (1) and Rivers United (2) are leading the pack. Rangers’ bouncing back to prominence was boosted by the 2-1 defeat of Heartland recently. If the Giwa game had counted, they would have been top now. But knowing how crucial points on the road are in the race, they did the needful in Owerri.
Wikki won away to El Kanemi on the opening day and beat Ikorodu in Lagos when the second stanza resumed a couple of weeks ago.
In the same vein, Rivers United’s unlikely charge at the title is down to two road victories against Ikorodu in Week 9 and Wolves in Week 15. The romance with the top particularly started after that Week 15 success.
Pillars (1 away victory), Lobi (1), MFM (1), Enyimba (2), Sunshine (1), Abia Warriors (2) and Akwa United (1) complete the top 10 teams on the table.
The top 10 teams have amassed 68 of the 84 away points garnered by away teams this season. So, the teams in the lower rung have pulled in just 16.
On the contrary, the fortunes of the relegation-threatened teams have been hampered by poor home form.
Four of the bottom six teams, namely Ikorodu, Shooting Stars, Heartland and El Kanemi, have lost twice at home.
Nasarawa has lost once, same as 13th-placed Wolves. Only 17th-placed Plateau are yet to lose at home.
A team like Heartland has drawn the most matches away (5) which could translate to one away win and two draws but have been largely undone by the two home losses.
It could therefore be deduced that while the teams who win more away matches will fight for the trophy, the ones who lose more home matches will battle for survival.
Only nine teams are yet to lose at home this term. They are Wikki, Rivers, Enyimba, MFM, Lobi, Rangers, Ifeanyi Uba (since the opening day home loss to Giwa no longer counts), Plateau and Tornadoes.
If the away victories involving Giwa had counted (they won one away game and lost two at home), the current season would have recorded 18 away victories so far, but at 15 away wins, last year’s 31 away wins could still be surpassed.
The good news however is that teams can now aspire to win anywhere.
Nwankpa Jnr writes for African football.com
Clement Nwankpa Jr
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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