Sports
WACL: I Don’t See Any Group Of Death – Okon
Following the recent CAF Women’s Champions draws, head coach of Nigeria’s CAF Champions League representative, Rivers Angels, Edwin Okon has said that his side is not in a tough group.
The Reigning Nigeria Women Football League Premiership Champions were on Wednesday grouped alongside winners of the UNAF qualifiers, ASFAR Club (MAR), champions of the CECAFA zone and 3-time champions of the Kenyan Women’s Football League, Vihiga Queens and COSAFA winners, Mamelodi Sundowns (RSA) in November’s inaugural edition of the Champions League.
According to Okon, adequate preparation will prevent his side from being rattled by any kind of opposition in the group stage.
“I want to thank God for qualification first and as for the draws, I don’t think anything is impossible. As far as football is concerned, every group is a good group.
“Our group might as well be a group of death like you know but one has to be prepared to meet any team at whatever level.
“So I don’t see any group as group of death, it is either you prepare well and do well or you prepare badly and do badly,” Okon added.
The former Super Falcons gaffer also disclosed that his team has one more pre-season tournament to go for after the Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament before heading to Egypt for the Champions League.
“It’s still work in progress, as you can see we are already in Benin for this tournament because we are trying to see what we have on ground”, he said.
“We still have one more preseason to attend after here and that will help us work on some lapses ahead of the big one in Egypt.
“The target is to put up a better outing at the continent and the only way we can achieve this is by adequate preparations. We don’t want to be in Egypt to make up numbers but to participate and leave a mark,” summed Okon.
The draw was held at CAF headquarters in Cairo and coordinated by CAF’s Director of Competitions, Samson Adamu, with the assistance of Nigerian legend, Perpetua Nkwocha and the captain of Wadi Degla and Egyptian National team captain, Alia Zenouki.
Rivers Angels’ first group game is against ASFAR Club of Morocco, date and time will be communicated later.
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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