Sports
Uganda Dreams AFCON 2015
The 36 years of wait
ing since their last appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations is the motivating factor behind why Uganda Cranes are working so hard to make it to the 2015 finals in Morocco, coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic has said.
Sredojevic, who led the Cranes to qualification for the 2014 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa, is hoping that he can drive his team to realise this dream. Uganda qualified for the group stage of the 2015 AFCON qualifiers after seeing off Madagascar and Mauritania.
The CECAFA giants will face Ghana on September 6 in Kumasi in the first Group E encounter, before returning to host Guinea at the Mandela National Stadium, Namboole.
Togo, who will be led by Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor, will have two back-to-back games against Uganda in October.
He said although the group opponents are established teams with great quality and huge number of top class professionals, garnished with enormous financial injection from their governments, his team is hungry to make a statement.
“Whatever numbers of top professionals they have, we shall approach it with motivation and the big dream to qualify after 36 years of absence,” Sredojevic told Tidesports source.
He also said the Cranes’ dream to qualify for AFCON is much bigger than the usual obsession of the group opponents to be there.
Sredojevic has said he is doing everything possible to have a build-up game before traveling to face Ghana on September 5th at the Baba Yara Sport Stadium.
He disclosed that together with the Ugandan FA, they are trying to make sure the team can play an international friendly match before the Ghana game.
“The players need to get some playing time in their legs ahead of the visit to Kumasi,” added the coach.
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.
-
Featured1 day agoWASSCE: RSG Distributes Science Materials To Secondary Schools
-
News1 day ago
Xenophobic Attacks: Nigerian Lives More Important Than Foreign Investment – Oshiomhole
-
Rivers1 day ago
MBA Forex Trial Adjourn To June 3, Amid Bereavement … As Court Declines Cost Application
-
News1 day ago
ActionAid Demands Probe Of Govs Using Public Funds For Campaign
-
Aviation1 day ago
Passengers Stranded As Delta Airline From Atlanta Route Back Eight Hours After
-
Business1 day ago
Customs Impound N2.35bn Cocaine, 15 Trailers of Rice
-
Politics1 day ago
2027: Bayelsa Senator Gets Critical Endorsement For Second Term
-
Politics1 day agoINEC Sets Rivers South-East Senatorial By-Election For June 20