Sports
Kayode Happy To Net Rivers United’s First Goal
Rivers United’s goalscorer, Isaq Kayode, says he is happy to start the new Nigeria Professional Football League campaign with a bang.
The pacy forward scored the Rivers United’s first goal of the 2021/2022 Nigeria Professional Football League.
In a game played with very high intensity that ended 1-1, it was Ishaq Kayode’s goal which caught the eye most though, curling in a perfect shot to beat the impressive Emeka Onyia in the Lobi Stars goal, and the young star was rightly delighted with his contribution.
“It’s a very proud moment for me and I’m just so happy,” he said afterwards.
“It’s a good feeling to score not just my first goal of the new season and it coming on matchday one but also a better feeling that the goal helped the team get a vital away point, so now I’ve done that and I just want to do it more and get that feeling many more times.”
In a well attended game at the Aper Aku Stadium, Ishaq Kayode was not troubled at all by the atmosphere, continuing, “We spoke about it before the game. The Aper Aku Stadium had not been a favourable ground for us having returned empty handed in the last four attempts. We just had to maintain our cool and play our game.”
“Lobi Stars had their fan support them, but we said that we just have to play with our confidence, play our game, stick to our game plan and everything will be fine.” He said.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
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