Sports
Tough Times Ahead For Black Leopards
Black Leopards will again be faced with a truncated off-season break for the second year running due to continental commitments with a CAF Confederations Cup last 16 at the end of June away in Sudan.
Leopards will face off with Sudanese club Al Merreikh five weeks from now over the last weekend of June before playing the return leg at home in Limpopo on July 13-15, and by then the domestic league will still be a month away from re-opening.
After having just stopped training after the last League match on Saturday, Lidoda Duvha players will report back for pre-season on June 18 and then put up with the long flight to Sudan a week later as they seek to continue with their miraculous run in Africa.
Though Leopards players have been allowed to go on a deserved break after securing their PSL status for another season, they will have a tight training programme to follow.
Sunday Chidzambwa, who was the architect of the team’s return to the PSL, will oversee the team’s pre-season training after being given a vote of confidence to continue as head coach in the new season.
Last season Leopards also had a short off-season break after having to play in the Nedbank Cup Final and having to cope with an extended season in the Promotion/Relegation Play-Offs that dragged until June 18, forcing to have just a two-week break.
The shortened preparation time then threw Leopards in a situation where they were merely battling to stay up all season after winning just twice in their opening 15 games of the season.
Leopards will this year be faced with a twisted situation of where after playing against the Sudanese, they will have to wait almost a month before the local season starts.
However, if they succeed in overcoming El Merreikh they will then have two Group A games to play in the group matches every two months from August to October.
Chidzambwa has conceded that such a short break for the second year running presents challenges for them, but that they have to keep on pushing.
“We have given all players a programme to follow while they are away,” says the Zimbabwean 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.
-
Featured2 days agoWASSCE: RSG Distributes Science Materials To Secondary Schools
-
News2 days ago
Xenophobic Attacks: Nigerian Lives More Important Than Foreign Investment – Oshiomhole
-
Rivers2 days ago
MBA Forex Trial Adjourn To June 3, Amid Bereavement … As Court Declines Cost Application
-
News2 days ago
ActionAid Demands Probe Of Govs Using Public Funds For Campaign
-
Aviation2 days ago
Passengers Stranded As Delta Airline From Atlanta Route Back Eight Hours After
-
Business2 days ago
Customs Impound N2.35bn Cocaine, 15 Trailers of Rice
-
Politics2 days ago
2027: Bayelsa Senator Gets Critical Endorsement For Second Term
-
Politics2 days agoINEC Sets Rivers South-East Senatorial By-Election For June 20