DARE TO DREAM!

Mayhrez/Vardy: Key to Leicester Success

Back in 2008, he was playing in the French fifth tier. He was only snapped up for a paltry 400,000 pounds. He dared to dream! Today, Riyad Mayhrez has a medal as a champion in England after been the first African  to be named PFA Player of the Year…

It wasn’t so long ago that Jamie Vardy was playing against York City and Kettering Town in non-league cadre in England. Some even scoffed at his 1 million pounds transfer fee from Fleetwood Town to Leicester City back in 2012. But Jamie dared to dream. He has just been given a guard of honour by players of Everton – an honour reserved only for Champions…

Ranieri and Morgan Lift Trophy

He’s coaching career has seen him being mocked as a senile Septuagenarian. He’s been called the Tinkerman who’s almost always the Nearly Man. He’s been rejected and shamed. He was kicked out of a job at The Bride cos he allegedly couldn’t take his team at the time to the promise land of being Champions. In a week’s time, Claudio Ranieri would walk into that Bridge a champion. He dared to dream…

‘Wanted: worthy rival for decent derby’ read a banner at the Bernabau in 2011 as Real

Real Madrid Got What They Wished For

Madrid battled city rivals Atletico in a derby. Well, after not losing to your rivals for 14 years, you can be forgiven for being so egotistic. Then, along came a Diego! He dared to dream. Since then, a worthy competitor, threatening not only to break Real’s stranglehold in the city but the duopoly of Real and Barcelona in the whole of Spain has emerged. Someone named Simeone dared to dream…

Euro 2004: Greece, Unlikely Winners

The streets of Greece may be filled with citizens now groaning under the pains of economic meltdown. But sometime in the summer of July 4^th 2004, the streets were filled with fans who dared to dream as their team were in the final of the European Championship. Up against the hosts, Portugal – a team they had beaten just weeks earlier in the tournament’s opening game, Otto Rehhagel and his Greek side dared to dream. Eliminating defending champions France in the last 8 and tournament favourites Czech Reppublic in the semis was an achievement. But that was not all. Greece dared to dream big and big they won…

Oh, and just a couple of weeks before that, a couple of miles away, another set of fans dared to dream. They were in an unlikely final when the likes of AC Milan, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea had fallen by the way side. But Porto with Jose Mourinho dared to dream and Champions of Europe they were crowned after a 3:0 demolition of Monaco…

Euro 92: Most Improbable Story

That’s not all. A group of players sometime in 1992 were already planning their summer holidays after grueling league campaigns. But a war in Yugoslavia after a break-up of the country changed the complexion of football that year. Yugoslavia were barred from featuring in the Euros that summer. Denmark who failed to qualify for tournament took their place. And for the likes of Brian Laudrup, Peter Schmeichel and a young Henrikh Larson and co, they were celebrating an unlikely European title.

What all these teams have in common is just simple: they dared to dream. Nigeria’s Super Eagles can dare to dream about the 2022 World Cup, Samson Siasia can dare to dream about being Olympic Champion and better still, Nigeria’s Olympic athletes can dare to dream about getting 10 gold medals at the next tournament. Errrrrm, no, not this year’s Olympics in case you were wondering.

As I wrap this up, the lyrics of one of Westlife’s songs just comes to my mind:

“Don’t you know that dreams come true, they do/Dreams come true, they do/From all of us to all of you they do/Dreams come true.”

Just dare to dream!

This piece first appeared as a column Sixth Sense on Independent Monitor newspaper on Thursday 5th May, 2016.

CREDITS

Leicester City pic courtesy caughtoffside.com

Real Madrid Banner courtesy therealmadridfan.com

Greece Euro Winners courtesy dcgreeks.com

Denmark Euro winners courtesy thedockyards.com

Mayrez/Vardy courtesy dailymail.com

SAVE THE NWFL

Super Falcons: Africa's Best

On Tuesday, my timeline on twitter was flooded with the hashtag #savetheNWFL (Nigeria Women Football League in case you are wondering).A brilliant way to highlight the deficiencies that had stalled the growth of the league in Nigeria. As much as the women national team, the super falcons has won the Africa Women championship a record of 9 times, appeared in the Olympic games and 7 times in the world cup, the state of the league has been in shambles. Loads of teams are viable, they can t pay salaries of pay salaries of their players and then honouring matches is even out of the questions. Most of the clubs are government owned and the economic crunch makes it almost impossible to properly fund the clubs. Even the ones owned by private individuals look more concerned about how to make money out of selling their best players than really providing for the club.

The major reason we are where we are is simple: a lack of funds. A lot of my female colleagues and even administrations I have spoken to have called for an independent body to run to  women’s  league just like the league management company does for the male counterpart. And the belief is that the independent body to run to the women’s league. But here’s the hard truth: the LMC came into existence in the first place because there was no money in the league and not the other way round. Don’t get me wrong, the

Women Teams In Action

LMC has in the last couple of years helped in expanding the scope of the men’s league financially culminating of course with Tuesday’s signing of an MOU with the Spanish La-Liga . But the independent management company set up by the Nigeria football Federation which metamorphosed into the LMC was set up in the first place as a result of imbroglio on how to deal with sponsorship funds from former sponsors, Globacom. So in essence, it might be a bit of an illusion to just think an independent body will help attract funds or sponsorship to the league.

But an independent body sure look like it is needed to properly structure the women league. A situation where the club owners say one thing and do another doesn’t bode well for the development of the league. Last week, the congress of the NWFL took place and certain teams who were supposed to be relegated have now been brought back to be part of a new league season. Some teams are already crying foul and saying this is anomaly. Question then, is how do you expect would-be sponsors to take you serious when there is a serious organizational problem?

More so, it’s time to start the hard question. Reportedly, FIFA gives 1 million dollars t its members associations yearly since 2000. About 10 percent of that fund is supposed to be women football development, this is 2016, and so simple arithmetic suggests 1.6 million dollars should have been sunk into women football development. The state of

Dejected Faces? 

women football in the country doesn’t look like one that has had 1.6 million dollars injected into it. I’ve seen a lot of women journalists come out on social media to vent their anger. Some have even accused their male counterparts of not doing enough for women game almost turning it into a feminism war. Point is this ain't a gender battle. It’s time all of us, women journalist included, ask the hard truth about where the supposed grant for women football development goes to.

It’s high time we all did what is right and like Tuesdays hashtag #SaveTheNWFL.

-This piece first appeared as a column Sixth Sense on Port Harcourt based newspaper Independent Monitor on Thursday April 28th 2016.

CREDITS

Super Falcons Pic courtesy www.olisa.tv

Women In Action Pic courtesy www.allnigeriasoccer.com

Dejected Look Pic courtesy www.nairaland.com

Rivers United, Reconciliation and Matters Arising

First of all, my sincere apologies for not bringing you Sixth Sense last week. I was help up on a hospital bed treating Typhoid and Ulcer. Ordinarily, it shouldn’t have mattered because I already had something penned down. But I guess the illness took it toll on me as I only remembered on Thursday (last week) morning that I had not sent in the column to my editor. Once again, apologies for this.

Rivers United: Going Higher

This week, I have a lot on my mind to talk about. So I’d just run through some of these major issues. First off, let’s talk Rivers United. A couple of weeks ago, I asked on this page if Rivers United is a Dolphins’Re-incarnate. The team had at the time not been able to get a point away from home in the Nigeria Professional Football League; their home form was patchy even if they were winning games; and the manager Stanley Eguma was sounding exactly how he’s always been in the last three years with loads of excuses. Fast forward weeks later, and the story is totally different. Maybe it is the ultimatum given to the team by the sponsors of the club, the rivers State government. Maybe it’s the coach turning around the fortunes. But having lost twice since the ultimatum (technically once against Heartlands as the game against Go Round in the Rivers FA Cup final ended in a draw after 90 minutes); getting an away win in between against Ikorodu United; and sitting comfortably in the top 4 on the table; one can only say kudos to the Rivers United players, coaches and management. It’s the hope of every Rivers State football fan that this progress transcends to a trophy at the end of the season or at least a continental ticket.

NFF AND RECONCILIATION

NFF: What Manner of Reconciliation?

Nigeria’s sports minister Solomon Dalung has inaugurated a Reconciliation Committee to resolve the protracted issues between the Amaju Pinnick led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Chris Giwa camp. I wouldn’t want to get into the details as to how we got here. I guess this is already public knowledge for most football followers. My pain however is the fact that most if not all of these sports administrators angling for the position of the NFF are not doing so because they want to offer solutions to the problems of the country’s football. It’s about the financial gains, the estacodes and every other benefit the office brings. Nigeria has failed to make the last Africa Cup of Nations and won’t be in Gabon next year but instead of these administrators to look at ways to avoid missing out on the next World Cup, they are busy fighting over the soul of the NFF.

What does the Reconciliation Committee aim to achieve? Why is Chris Giwa laying claims to an office when his election hasn’t been recognized by FIFA and his plan to get justice at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) rejected?

On the other hand, is the NFF bigger than the laws of the land? Why is that till now the laws of the land only recognize Nigeria Football Association and yet the football house operates as NFF? Why has it been so difficult for the National Assembly to take a holistic look at the laws setting up football administration in the country? Should government not have a say when it is the major sponsor of the NFF?

The answers to these questions might vary but I honestly believe if we want to move football forward in this country, then we need to answer them critically even as we await the outcome of the Reconciliation Committee.

AFRICAN FOOTBALL STILL BACKWARD

Enyimba Players Celebrating

As you read this, Nigeria’s sole representative would have either made it to the group stages of the CAF Champions League or get knocked out. On the eve of the game in Sousse, Tunisia, loads of unpleasant stories have emerged especially from the Enyimba camp. According to the club’s official handle, the bus provided for the team was recalled by Tunisian officials and Enyimba players had to board taxis to training. More so, some angry Etoile fans were pictured throwing stones at Enyimba players as they trained in preparation for the game. It’s very easy to call this act by the Tunisians outrageous but then, do they have a genuine reason for this act? I didn’t see the first leg of the game in Port Harcourt but several independent reports I gathered suggested that officiating was a little biased in favour of the home side. And with the huge presence of Tunisian journalists who covered the first leg, I gather their reports back home suggested as much. Could that be the reason for the harsh treatment meted out to Enyimba? Truth of the matter is that CAF needs to find a way to curb all of these anomalies if it wants to favourably with UEFA competitions. A situation where home teams would use intimidation and other under-hand tactics to win games at all cost doesn’t bode well for CAF. The time to act is now.

PS

Enyimba won the game 4:3 on penalties despite a 3:0 loss in the return leg. The penalty shoot-outs were really nail-biting. But worryingly, reports of intimidation in the stadium left a lot to be desired. Head of the club’s media Farriel Alaputa tweeted after the game about how hostile the fans were. Throwing of missiles at Enyimba’s bench; using lasers to distabilise the team during the game and fans blocking the team’s convoy on way out just doesn’t bode well for CAF and we want the competition to rival the UEFA Champions League? 

CREDIT

Rivers United pic courtesy goal.com

NFF pic courtesy vangaurdngr.com

Enyimba pic courtesy dailypost.ng

2017 AFCON: Why We Failed (2)

Last week, I wrote about the issues I felt led us to where we are as the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). I gave details how the ineffective leadership of the Amaju Pinnick led NFF and the erstwhile Super Eagles manager Sunday Oliseh were largely responsible for  our ouster. Today, I will dwell on the final reason which for me is coaching.I am going to restrict my discussion here to two of Nigeria’s last three coaches Stephen Keshi and Sunday Oliseh.

During the early 1990’s, Garba Lawal’s inclusion in the national team always polarised fans. Many were of the opinion that the Kaduna born midfielder was only included to ensure that a Northern player made the team. It took a long time for fans to come to terms with what the former Julius Berger star offered to the team. If Lawal’s inclusion was one of the few exceptions that polarised fans, Stephen Keshi took invitations for the Super Eagles to a totally ridiculous level.

Keshi: Some Questionable Invitees 

Loads of accusations were leveled against Keshi whenever the Super Eagles team list was released and deservedly so. For every game the Super Eagles had to play, there was always one strange name that got a lot of fans going, “who’s he”? From Joe Omale who plays for Dekina Dragons, Anderson Esiti, Youth Corp member Stephen Morah, Pata Idris and  Michael Uchebo (popularly known as Flavour owing to him looking like the Nigerian musician); Nigerians were at one point or the other treated to very curious invitations.  A journalist friend told me how in Benin, one player based in Nigeria rained curses at Keshi after the coach reportedly collected cash from the said player but didn’t give him the alleged promised invitation. Keshi’s cup ran out its course when he finally invited one Gabriel Okechukwu – an academy player based in Abuja and reportedly gave him the Number 10 jersey for a crucial World Cup qualifier against Chad. The Nigeria Football Federation cited Okechukwu’s invitation as one of the reasons Keshi was fired.

Sunday Oliseh came in with a breath of fresh air- at least that’s what most of us thought. We thought the era of such ridiculous invitations to the Super Eagles was over; but apparently, it wasn’t. For the crucial AFCON qualifier against Tanzania, Sunday Oliseh released a list of 18 foreign based players to prosecute the game with two curious names: Sylvester Igboun of FC UFA and Izunna Erners Uzochukwu of FC Amkar Perm, both in Russia. Curiously, both players have same agent – Churchill Oliseh, the elder brother of the coach. While there is nothing wrong in inviting these

Oliseh: Guilty Too?

players IF they are good enough, the fact neither were really having great club careers which made their invitation inevitable, left a lot to be desired. Such invitations that looked like some underhand dealings were done plus allegations of interference from members of the Technical Committee of the NFF who were alleged to always tell coaches who needs to be invited and who shouldn’t, in a way contributed to Nigeria’s ouster.

Presently, the NFF is looking to go the foreign route. NFF President Amaku Pinnick hasn’t hidden his love for a foreign manager (or is it his disdain for local coaches?). On Tuesday, a meeting was held between the NFF and the Sports Minister Solomon Dalong where this issue was discussed. As I write this, reports suggest that the minister has given conditions which would enable the appointment of the foreign manager. Truth of the matter is, it doesn’t matter the colour of the coach. I am not against appointing a foreign manager if he is competent. But Nigeria’s problem is more of a system failure administratively and less of coaching abilities. Yes, I have highlighted some misdemeanor from our coaches which I think led to our failure to qualify for the 2017 AFCON, but members of Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation need to sit down and tell each other the hard truth: a faulty system can’t be washed away by a foreign manager.

CONGRATULATIONS GO ROUND                  

Felix Obuah Celebrating With Players

For the first time since 1999, a club other than Sharks or Dolphins was crowned Rivers Federation Cup champions after National League side Go Round got a pulsating 4:2 penalty shoot-out win over Premier League side Rivers United. The game was largely drab up until the 90^th minute when Isreal Daniel thought he had given Rivers United the winner. But a goal-keeping blunder ensured Go Round scored an equaliser a minute later. The Drama continued 4 minutes into additional time when Rivers United were awarded a penalty. Up stepped former Go Round player and Rivers United captain on the day Chinwendu Ali who missed from 6 yards. Rivers United went on to miss the first two kicks in the ensuing penalty shoot-outs as the Felix Obuah owned club ran out winners.

With a promise of 20 million naira dangling before them just before the kick off, it wasn’t a surprise to see the wild celebrations from the Go Round players after the final whistle. I guess congratulations are in order to the team. More so, a special mention to the proprietor, Felix Obuah. We want more of private individuals like him investing in sports. 


CREDITS
Pic of Keshi courtesy completesports.com
Pic of Oliseh courtesy goal.com
Pic of Felix Obuah courtesy @Ikwerreman

This piece first appeared on Thursday April 7th as a column, Sixth Sense, for Port Harcourt based newspaper Independent Monitor.

2017 AFCON: Why We Failed

2013 AFCON: Distant Memory

It’s the day after we have failed once again to qualify for Africa’s biggest football showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). I still have a heavy heart. The disgust still lingers on almost 12 hours after the game as I write this. Gone are the days when we castigated our coaches for winning bronze medals at AFCON. Now, we can’t even qualify again. How on earth did we get to this situation? Here are some of the major reasons I think are responsible:

FOOTBALL ADMINISTRATION

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) under Amaju Pinnick has since September

2014, overseen a dark period for Nigeria football especially when it concerns the

Amaju Pinnick: Overseen More Failures Than Results

country’s flagship team, the Super Eagles. As much as the U-17 team, the U-23 and the Super Falcons have won laurels in the last two years of Amaju's tenure, the inability to qualify for consecutive AFCON is failure personified. And this comes from making choices that have turned out to be disastrous. The obvious one was appointing former captain Sunday Oliseh as coach of the team. From what I’ve gathered, appointing Oliseh wasn’t a unanimous decision by the Executive Committee of the NFF. If it had turned out successful, no one would be talking about it. But it didn’t. Sunday Oliseh oversaw one of the worst reigns of any Super Eagles manager (I’d get to that in a bit). So, the failure of Oliseh goes all the way back to failure of the NFF who appointed him.

Oliseh The Saviour or Quitter? 

Appointing Oliseh isn’t just the only anomaly of the NFF in recent years. There have been too many misplaced priorities and half-truths projected to Nigerians. Sometime last year, Pinnick publicly announced that the NFF had reached a deal with a commercial bank to foot the bills of the then Super Eagles manager, Sunday Oliseh. There was so much fanfare made about that deal and the football house got enough praise from fans and the press for it. Fast forward months later, the inability of the football house to pay the bills of the coach was one of the reasons given by the manager for leaving the position. I was reliably informed by two members of the Executive Committee that the supposed deal with the commercial bank had not been concluded. So why on earth would you come out publicly to talk about a deal when it is yet to be concluded? I don’t even want to start talking about the kit deal reportedly reached with Nike. That also has been enmeshed in so much controversy.

As if these were not enough, at a time when the NFF has been crying about lack of funds due to the harsh economic situation, there were still funds to take members of the congress which comprised state FA Chairmen and Secretaries to a ‘Capacity Building’ in London. This was at a time that the salaries of some of the national team coaches as well as bonuses of some of the national team players had not been paid (some haven’t been paid till now I gather). I was told that a bank actually foot the bill for the training. And I ask: would it not have been better to channel those funds to better use? If the money used for the Capacity Building had been used to settle Oliseh’s salaries, would we have come to the situation where a coach would ‘abandon’ his job three weeks to a crucial qualifier?

SUNDAY OLISEH

And that brings me to another reason why we will not be on the plane to Gabon next year. Former coach Sunday Oliseh can point to all the inadequacies he had to put up with from the NFF; he can point to the lack of motivation in terms of non- payment of salaries and bonuses; he can as well point to his statistics of losing just one competitive game in 14 matches and rightly so; but truth of the matter is that his reign remains one of the most cantankerous reigns of any of Super Eagles manager.

It is on record that under his tenure, former captain Vincent Enyeama retired from international football after an unnecessary public spat. Under him, Nigeria failed to get out of the group stages of the Championship for African Nations (CHAN) – a tournament we had finished as bronze medalists before he came into the picture.

Africa's Guardiola? Naaaaaaa! Not Even Close 

And to make matters worse, three weeks to the biggest games of his managerial career, he decides to leave his position. From my experience of covering the CHAN tournament in Rwanda, it was quite obvious Oliseh lacked the mental strength and decorum to manage the Super Eagles. As a player, his fiery and hot temper was public knowledge. Years after retiring, one would have expected the former captain to have mellowed down. Unfortunately, Oliseh had not. On the eve of Nigeria’s final group game at CHAN against Guinea, a simple question from me to him on what his message to fans would be if he ended up not qualifying for the knock-out stages of the competition, elicited a response that showed how petty Oliseh can be. He went on a rant that ended with him asking me to pack my bags and leave Rwanda if all I came to the press conference to do was to be negative. Just because I was probably the only journalist at the presser who was bold enough to look at the possibility of Nigeria losing and not qualifying? Weeks later, he went a step further and put out video calling critics “insane”.

As far as I am concerned, oliseh saw the enormity of battling Egypt, saw he had burnt a lot of bridges with the NFF and most fans and decided to take the easy way out to avoid being technically responsible for Nigeria’s failure to secure an AFCON ticket. Unfortunately, he can’t run away from this dark shadow. He also shares part of the blame….

TO BE CONTINUED

CREDITS
Pictures courtesy goal.com and pulseng.com 

This article first appeared as a column Sixth Sense on Independent Monitor on Thursday March 31st, 2016.

PHARAOHS MUST FALL

                         

As you read this, it is 24 hours to the very crucial match between Nigeria’s Super Eagles and the Pharaoh’s of Egypt in an African Nations Cup qualifier at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna. The build up the game has been all about Arsenal teenager Alex Iwobi. The 19 year old has had a whirlwind week starting from a super performance last week against Barcelona in Arsenal’s 3:1 defeat; a scintillating display at Goodison Park on his first start for Arsenal; a late surge from the English FA to get him to play for the Three Lions; and reportedly ending in a hospital after food poisoning. Confirming the food poisoning issue on his twitter handle, Iwobi noted “Had the maddest food poisoning but I am good now and feeling ready for the Egyptian match.” The good news for us is that the episode has been resolved and as at Tuesday evening, the Arsenal man joined the rest of the team to train in Kaduna ahead of the game.

Arsenal Teenager Alex Iwobi

The last ditch effort by the English FA to get Iwobi not to honour the Super Eagles invitation may not be unconnected with his scintillating performance in the last one week. Unfortunately, that seemed to be a lost cause because his father Chuka had always wanted his son to fulfill a dream he could not achieve. According to Iwobi’s father Chuka, “it wasn’t a difficult decision for me (to convince Iwobi to play for Nigeria). I played football when I was younger and it was my ambition to play for Nigeria but my dream didn’t eventually come true. So when the opportunity came and Alex got the invitation, I spoke to him and I said to him, give it a go. He agreed with me and he came to Nigeria and we loved it. The fans have been great, the press has been great and it’s an honour to play for Nigeria.”

Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna

Staging the game in Kaduna has been a contentious issue since last year when the announcement was made especially for fans who live in the Southern part of the country. A lot of fans have not forgotten Nigeria’s inability to make it to the 2006 World Cup in Germany after a 1:1 draw in Kano. Most fans still believe that the weather in Kaduna would favour our opponents who have most of their players based in Egypt and they may have a point. But the Nigeria Football Federation cannot say no to a state government willing to host its national team and foot most, if not all of the bills, especially, in this day when the football house has been crying of being cash strapped. More importantly, the NFF has now moved forward the kick-off time by an hour. The game will now be played at 5 pm as opposed to the original scheduled time of 4 pm. With temperatures expected to be up to 36 degree centigrade on Friday, it is only wise to play the game when the temperature would be mild.

To the game proper, Samson Siasia has a hard task in front of him. With the spate of injuries to some of his players on the eve of the games, an already hard task has been made a lot more difficult. A lot has been made about AS Roma’s Mohammed Salah and Arsenal’s Mohammed Elneny. But truth of the matter is that the Pharaoh’s of Egypt will most likely target the Super Eagles fullbacks. No one is certain who would start in those positions but that is one area Siasia would need to get it right if Nigeria is to get any result, at least from the first leg.

Unlike Siasia who is on an interim basis, Egypt’s coach Hector Cuper seems to be on a knife edge. According to reports from certain quarters, the former Valencia and Inter Milan coach is facing the sack if results against the Super Eagles do not go his way.  A source in the Egyptian FA told Complesports newspaper “Cuper has been given a two-match ultimatum by the Egyptian Football Association. He has been told to beat Nigeria and ensure Egypt qualify for Gabon 2017 or face dismissal. EFA chiefs were not impressed with the team’s performance against Burkina Faso and have warned Cuper to shape up and pick valuable points in Kaduna and Alexandria, if he hopes to retain his job.”

Hector Cuper Egyptian Coach

Cuper might not be a very popular name amongst football followers but the Argentine is a very sound manager. His Valencia side in the early 2000’s reached two Champions League finals in a row in 2000 and 2001 playing amazing football in the process. Maybe, if the team had won any of those titles, he would have had more fame than he presently does. But some of us won’t forget the Gaizka Mendietta’s, Claudio Lopez’, Kily Gonzalez’ of this world in a hurt who made that team thick. Agreed that his present Egyptian side may not be that talented, but Cuper is optimistic.

We can bear the Nigerian national team,” the former Inter Milan manager said during his interaction with the media on Sunday in Cairo. “So, I promise we will give everything in this match, but I cannot promise a win outright.”

One only hopes for the sake of Nigerian fans that the Pharaohs fall in Kaduna.


-This piece first appeared as a column, Sixth Sense, on Port Harcourt based newspaper Independent Monitor on Thursday March 24th. 


CREDITS
Iwobi/Stadium pics courtesy goal.com
Hector Cuper pic courtesy premiumtimes.com 

IS RIVERS UNITED A DOLPHINS RE-INCARNATE?

         

Rivers United File Out Against Enyimba

 It is just six games into the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and for newly formed (or is newly renamed?) Rivers United, there seems to be the familiar failings of the defunct Dolphins Football Club, one of the clubs that merged to form this new entity. For the whole of the 2014/2015, Dolphins actually never managed a win away from. It is no surprise the 3 time NPFL Champions only managed to escape relegation on the final day of the season by just a paltry one point ahead of its sister club Sharks -who ended up in the lower division and ultimately, resurrected with the merger of both clubs to form the new Rivers United. If you think the rot only goes that far, well, think again. Even two seasons ago, Dolphins also did not win a game away from its home ground, the Yakubu Gowon Stadium (former Liberation Stadium). All the 15 wins they got in the 2013/2014 season were won at home with only 6 points got away from home courtesy of 6 draws.

For as long as last season went, coach of the defunct Dolphins Stanley Eguma had one reason or the other to explain the club’s failings. It was either his boys “lost concentration,” “the referee was against his team” or his players “did not play to instruction.” It became such a theme that some journalists in Port Harcourt never bothered to ask for his post match reactions again because they could easily predict what he would say. Fast forward months after, Dolphins doesn’t exist anymore. We now have a combination of Dolphins and Sharks to form Rivers United. Eguma is still in the saddle but those failings seem not to have found a way to go away.

After the home game against Nassarawa United on Match Day 5, Eguma explained some of the reasons behind Rivers United’s poor start to the season away from home. Hear him: “We are in need of reinforcements in certain areas. We have been playing certain players out of position.

Stanley Eguma Rivers United Coach

“Chigozie Ihunda is a natural right back but because our first choice left back, Ali Chiwendu is injured, we are playing him (Ihunda) in that position.

“Ayobami (Asekunowo) is a central defender but he’s been made to play at right back and that’s why he did not have a good game (versus Nasarawa United).

“In subsequent matches, we will have our players back to our usual positions and that will see us play our normal game,” he said.

Rivers United in Action 

Since that explanation, one game has been played: last weekend’s 3:2 defeat against newly promoted Niger Tornadoes. With the game played in a neutral ground, the Confluence Stadium in Lokoja, one would have expected Rivers United to have seen this as a golden opportunity to get a valuable point or three away from home. But after about 70 minutes, the team was already down by 3 goals. Yes, there was a late onslaught, but at the end of the day, the team still lost.

Coach Eguma was quick to explain the situation again. “We started quite well but we conceded that goal from a free kick at the stroke of half time.

“In the second half, we conceded two quick goals as my players lost their heads.

“The good thing was the fight back but we will try to correct our mistakes from our next match.”

Like my colleague Paterson Mgbeoji noted when we analysed this on our radio show, football game is played for 90 minutes. It doesn’t matter if you come out all guns-blazing in the second half or last 20 minutes of a game if you’ve ended up conceding 5 in the opening period. For many of his critics and fans whose numbers have somewhat increased in recent seasons, the Rivers State born tactician has asked for a bit of patience. According to Eguma, “What we have is a young team. People are expecting us to play like Enugu Rangers, Kano Pillars and Enyimba but it is not possible at this stage.

Eguma: Facing The Sack? 

“Most of them are playing together for the first time. It’s just the tactical input and the experience of a few of them that has carried us (over the line) in the games we have played so far.”

However, we will soon stabilize and everyone will see a better-playing Rivers United team,” he said.

Problem is, these explanations and excuses are beginning to sound all too familiar. For a coach who has had two spells with the defunct Dolphins spanning 10 years (and counting) with two trophies in his kitty, a lot more is expected. Yes, we haven’t even gone one-third of the season and it might be too early to judge; but if you consider what has happened in the last two seasons, then, probably, there isn’t much to hope for. It is high time we started seeing a better playing Rivers United team away from home starting this weekend against 3SC in Ibadan.

-This piece first appeared last week  Thursday as a column, Sixth Sense, on Port Harcourt based newspaper Independent Monitor.

CREDITS

Pictures courtesy goal.com, citynews.ng and completesports.com