Sports
Betsy Tourney Is For Screening, Building Up Players – Okon
Head Coach of Rivers Angels, Edwin Okon says the public should be patient with his side as they are in this year’s Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament for the sole purpose of screening and building up their squad ahead of the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Okon made this appeal after his side’s 3-0 win over Royal Queens FC on Tuesday afternoon.
Goals from Mamuzo Edafe, Precious Christopher and Ifeoma Polinus ensured the Reigning Nigeria Women Football League Premiership Champions recorded their second win in as many matches.
Edafe side-footed a brilliant pass from Maryann Ezenagu which left goalkeeper Emmanuel Goodness helpless as the Jewel Of Rivers went in front eleven minutes from time.
Christopher doubled the lead from close range off a Cecilia Nku’s cross in the 83rd minute before Polinus wrapped up the scoring in the 87th minute to secure the win for Rivers Angels.
Okon, who had five new starters in Tuesday’s game said he will continue to rotate the team until he gets exactly what he wants.
“Firstly, I want to apologise for the first half which was a flop from the girls but generally, the spirit is quite high,” he said.
“I came here with 35 players and I want to give everyone the opportunity to play because we’re still screening them. Today we had five new starters from yesterday’s lineup and this will be a continuous process.
“Just like I said after yesterday’s game, the target is to build the team for the CAF Women’s Champions League. So our major reason for participating in this tournament is to give opportunities to these players.
“Egypt is around the corner and we’ll try as much as we can to make good use of this window,” Okon summed.
By: Nancy Briggs
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