Sports
Rangers Target Victory Over Pillars In Enugu
Rangers International FC of Enugu players are confident of defeating Kano Pillars FC in the ongoing Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) today in Enugu.
Tidesports source reports that Rangers will battle Kano Pillars FC in the NPFL rescheduled Match Day 11.
Some of the players who spoke with Tidesports in Enugu yesterday said they were ever ready to send Kano Pillars home empty handed.
Rangers’ newly recruited Defender, Ifeanyi Nweke, said he was halted by the last match’s score line and that he would do all in his capacity to ensure that Kano Pillars fall.
“Considering our position in the league, every match is now a final for us and that is how we are going to handle the today’s match.
“We need this match more than our visitors because of our position on the log of the NPFL.
“The match against Akwa United was a match we expected to win and pocketed the three points but it had come and gone.
“All the players have moved on from the loss so that we can face tomorrow,” the defender said.
He called on the League Management Company to ensure that the league was not disrupted with unfair officiating.
“In our last match, the officiating was something else and it was not fair to the league.
“The ongoing league season is the best compared to the previous seasons and it will not be fair for some people to murder LMC’s efforts,” Nweke said.
He assured the team’s fans and club supporters of good display with victory, urging them to hold on to their support.
Another player, Ibrahim Olawoyin, said that all their attention was on Kano Pillars and expected to be victorious.
“This is a rescheduled match that we need to pick the three points and we are ready to do that.
“We the players are not under any pressure because we already know the fixture from the beginning of the league.
“Kano Pillars are beatable and the coaches has done their job by putting us through the tactics that can give us a win,” he said.
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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