Sports
Super Six: Delta Queens Beat Rivers Angels
Delta Queens of Asaba at
the weekend in Abuja, clinched the Women Football League Super Six trophy for the third time running, winning the trophy for keeps.
They won the 2011 edition after a 1-0 victory over defending champions, Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt in the final match of the five-day competition held at the Abuja National Stadium.
In the competition’s final match, the Delta Queens dislodged Rivers Angels with a clinical display that kept their opponents on the back foot most of the time.
Ahead of the match, league defending champions Rivers Angels had led the competition since Match day One and only needed a draw to win the title.
But Delta Queens who won the 2008 and 2009 Super Six titles were more adventurous through Vera Okolo, Sike Promise and Desire Oparanozie who kept their opponents’ defence line busy.
They thus dominated the game and even missed a lot of scoring chances through Promise and Oparanozie, while the Rivers Angels missed a couple of theirs through Ebere Orji and Stella Mbachu.
However, Delta Queens took full charge in the 69th minute when Promise’s right flank corner-kick was headed into goal by Oparanozie at the far end for the game’s lone goal.
Rivers Angels’ fight back was immediate but ineffective, despite efforts by substitute Mercy Ameneze, Blessing Edoho, Stella Mbachu, Orji Rebecca Kalu and Oyinyechi Ohaduga.
Match captain Joy Jegede was, however, a rock in the Delta Queens defence line, as she kept the opponents in check throughout the second half when they fought back.
Delta Queens thus finished with 13 points from five matches, after four wins and one draw, and after scoring 10 goals and conceding two.
Rivers Angels dropped to second with 12 points from four wins and a loss, after scoring 10 goals and conceding two goals also.
Earlier in the day, Pelican Stars of Calabar had drawn 1-1 with Bayelsa Queens of Yenagoa to upstage Kogi Confluence of Lokoja and finished third in the competition.
Enoch Umoh had given the Yenagoa side a third minute lead only for Ugo Njoku to draw Pelican Stars level midway into the second half for them to finish on seven points.
Kogi Confluence placed fourth with six points, while Bayelsa Queens finished fifth with three points and Sunshine Queens had placed last with one point.
The competition which was held at the astro-turf pitch of the Abuja National Stadium’s FIFA Goal Project did not hold in 2010.
The competition had the top three teams in the two groups of the 2010/2011 Women Professional League taking part.
They are Rivers Angels who topped Group B of the league’s 2010/2011 competition ahead of second-placed Delta Queens and Bayelsa Queens.
The rest are Sunshine Queens who topped Group A, ahead of Pelican Stars and Kogi Confluence.
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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