Sports
2019 AFCON: Nigeria Takes Burundi In Opening Game, Morrow
A much-fancied Nigeria side begin their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a match against tournament debutants Burundi at the Alexandria Stadium, tomorrow
The Super Eagles are aiming to go all the way for the second time in six years and have a nice fixture to ease themselves in.
Dealt a difficult hand in last summer’s World Cup, placed in a group with Argentina and finalists Croatia, Nigeria crashed out at the group stage and they are now looking to make amends.
Advancing to the knockout rounds is their minimum target in Egypt, though reaching the final on July 19 and adding to their three previous titles will be the real aim.
Experienced boss Gernot Rohr, who has managed four African sides over the last nine years, has assembled a talented group that looks capable of challenging the likes of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and hosts Egypt.
The German coach has named eleven players under the age of 24 in his squad, though he does have experienced faces in John Obi Mikel, Kenneth Omeruo and Ahmed Musa.
Nigeria failed to impress during their pre-tournament friendlies as they played out a goalless draw with rank outsiders Zimbabwe and then lost 1-0 to Senegal last weekend.
However, up against a side 89 places below them in the latest FIFA rankings in their opening fixture, anything other than victory for the Super Eagles will be considered a major shock.
Then comes a trickier match against Guinea in their second match, before facing another competition debutant in Madagascar.
The battle with Guinea is expected to determine which side finishes top of Group B. Getting off to a positive start against Burundi is therefore imperative for Rohr and his players.
Meanwhile, Burundi are competing in a major tournament for the first time ever after finishing above Gabon in qualifying with 10 points from their six group matches.
The Swallows may be newbies on the big stage but, as they showed throughout the qualifying campaign, they cannot be written off as they drew home and away with Gabon and did enough in their other fixtures to finish second to Mali, who they will face in the competition proper.
Ranked 134th in the world, though, Burundi have a massive task on their hands if they are to make it any further than the group phase.
The last debutants to progress beyond the first round were Cape Verde, who qualified for the 2013 quarter-finals at the expense of Angola and Morocco before losing to Ghana.
Burundi head into their opening fixture on the back of a 2-1 loss to Tunisia earlier this week, conceding to a Naim Sliti goal in added time to see their unbeaten run come to an end.
Olivier Niyungeko’s men had gone seven games without defeat prior to that, earning a couple of draws against Gabon and Mali, as well as holding Algeria.
Playing out 1-1 draws is very much Burundi’s forte – that has been the scoreline in five of their last eight matches – and that will be the aim against heavyweights Nigeria, tomorrow.
Achieve that and Niyungeko’s side will remain well on course to keeping their dream adventure alive.
Sports
Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak
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.
Sports
Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again
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.
Sports
Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International
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