Sports
Army Team To Sustain High Profile Friendlies
General Officer Commanding (GOC), 3 Division, Nigerian Army, Rukuba, Maj.- Gen. Nuhu Agbazo, has said that the Division will sustain high calibre friendly matches for its football team, the Green Berets.
Angbazo told newsmen in Jos that friendlies would boost the team’s match fitness and reduce rustiness.
He said apart from keeping the team fit, such matches would also boost civil-military relations within the Division’s area of responsibility.
“Talents that could represent the country at national and international competitions could also be discovered through such competitions.
“The Army had produced athletes that had represented the nation and we want to sustain the feat,” he said.
The GOC said sports is crucial to military training as it keeps officers and men fit to discharge their responsibilities.
According to him, the sportsmen use strategies and tactics to defeat their opponents same as the military.
Tidesports source report that Green Berets on Saturday at Maxwell Koebe Cantonment playing ground hosted Plateau United of Jos, a Nigerian Professional Football League side.
Although the military boys lost 1-0 to the visitors, the encounter was entertaining as it featured display of high football skills by both sides.
The Green Berets were the better side in the opening minutes of the encounter but failed to take their chances.
Commander of the Special Task Force, Maj.-Gen Augustine Agundu, who watched the match alongside other heads of security agencies, commended the teams’ spectacular display of football prowess “comparable to European leagues”.
Agundu said that apart from the sporting benefit of the match, it had created another avenue for the military and civilian communities to interact.
He such avenues helped the people and military to collaborate on all fronts.
“We play together and we understand ourselves, it reduces misinformation.
“The match is one of non kinetic approaches of cementing relationship.
“It helps to understand that we have much to gain when we are together,” he said.
General Manager, Plateau United, Pius Henwan, thanked the Division for coming up with the initiative.
Henwan said that the match tested the fitness of his side that was getting ready for the new season of Nigeria Professional Football League.
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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