Nigerian Football
Rangers, Shooting Stars in Titanic Battle for Points
BY JUBRIL AROWOLO
Some years past, it would have been the match of the day. But how time changes. The Enugu Rangers versus Shooting Stars is almost relegated to the realm of anonymity. Both sides are virtually struggling for recognition this season.
Old football rivalry may just be rekindled as Rangers International FC hosts Shooting Stars FC on Sunday afternoon at the Nnamdi Azikwe Stadium, Enugu.
No one can forget in a hurry, the dramatic end of their first leg clash in Ibadan when Shooting Stars scored a late minute goal to punish the Flying Antelopes who lost a penalty kick in 87′ of the exciting encounter!
This is the background of Sunday’s tie and fans cannot wait to see how it pans out.
The visiting Shooting Stars are hard hit just having 32 points from 27 games played and are dangerously placed in the 18th position.
Right now, the fortunes of these two old club sides in the country are nothing to write home about on the current league log.
As such, the Oluyole Warriors must up the ante and start winning some crucial points on the road to complement recent victorious home runs.
This, the club’s Technical Adviser, Fatai Amoo expressed in a chat with www.3sc.com.ng on Saturday evening after the team’s training session.
“We have to start winning from tomorrow. It’s about making up our minds that other teams are winning away, why are we not? I think it has to do with our psyche!
However, Amoo sees the game as a big battle of old rivals with the belief that it could go either way.
“It’s a battle of two arch rivals and whoever stands up to be counted will win that’s why my players have to raise their game”.
Camp checks reveal a loaded, determined side with experience players in the likes of Ajani Ibrahim, Najeem Olukokun and Nonso Mbakwe and company.
For Rangers FC, it is a game they are not toying with to reaffirm their recent resurgence after a turbulent period that consumed their league winning tactician, Imama Amamakpabo.
With just 35 points from 27 matches in 12th position, they need to put up a spirited fight against the visiting Oluyole rivals who are bent on repeating or surpassing last year’s share of the spoils in a 1-1 score line.
Meanwhile, Rangers Spokesperson, Foster Chime says not this time round will the visitors survive it, as the Flying Antelopes would not loose its guard.
“Shooting Stars should look elsewhere for points. What happened last session will not repeat itself and our players are ready to give a fight”, Foster said.
The Nigeria U17 women’s team has been given incentives to make it to the Women’s World Cup for the eighth time.
The team, Flamingos, who arrived in Algiers in the early hours of Wednesday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, are highly inspired by the imminence of another FIFA World Cup ticket as well as further financial windfall from the Nigeria Football Federation and billionaire business mogul Kunle Soname.
Soname gifted the young players and their officials the sum of N4 million (one million naira for every goal) following their commanding win over the North Africans at the Remo Stars Stadium on Saturday, while the NFF gave out the sum of N2 million (five hundred thousand naira for every goal).
President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau and Soname have both confirmed that the same financial incentives are in place for the second leg in Blida on Friday.
“Our objective is clear – to win the FIFA World Cup ticket. That is the big motivation.
“Yet, we have been further incentivised by the monetary rewards. My girls will go all out on Friday night,” Head Coach Bankole Olowookere said.
Olowookere, who led the Flamingos to their last two World Cup ventures, will most likely rely on first-leg two-goal heroine Queen Joseph, lone-goal scorer Zainab Raji and Kaosarat Olanrewaju to start at the fore, with Shakirat Moshood, Muinat Rotimi and Philomena Isaiah supplying the passes from the midfield.
Goalkeeper and captain Christiana Uzoma and defenders Azeezat Oduntan, Hannah Ibrahim, Christiana Sunday and Jumai Adebayo are also likely to start.
The Confederation of African Football has selected Cameroonian official Marie Noelle Etong to be the referee, with her compatriots Marcelle Teikeu and Innocentia Ntangti as assistant referee 1 and fourth official, respectively, while Chadian Ngarassoum Victorine will be assistant referee 2.
Oumou Souleymane Kane from Mauritania will be the commissioner, and Sabelo Maphosa-Sibindi from Zimbabwe will be in the role of referee assessor.
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Former president of the initially 15-member West African Football Union (WAFU), Chief Jonathan Boytie Ogufere, has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the recent death of former national team captain and coach, Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu.
He remarked that the erstwhile Enugu Rangers’ defence stalwart will ‘be dearly missed’. In a personally signed letter of condolence, Ogufere described Chukwu, who died on Saturday, April 12, in Enugu after a brief illness at 74, as a ‘hero of our time and a friend’.
The nonagenarian recalled with nostalgia how he nearly recruited the young Chukwu for his P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu, adding he was impressed with how the ‘Field Marshal Christian Chukwuemeka ‘Chairman ‘ Chukwu (MFR), conducted himself throughout his career as he led both the national team, the then Green Eagles and his beloved Enugu Rangers to many conquests.
“I join numerous others to mourn the transition of the legendary Christian Chukwu, a hero of our time and friend,” the Ugbugba of Okpe Kingdom wrote.
“As one of the young academicals discovered after the end of the Civil War in 1970, I tried to enlist into my club, the P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu but he was fair and frank in informing me that he had already joined Enugu Ranges Football Club, and I respected that attitude. From the rivalries between the two clubs, his exploits as a central defender were very visible.”
He continued: “Christian Chukwu emerged at the national level as a trustworthy and formidable captain of the national team who led by example.
“He was one of the heroes during the Golden age of Nigerian football when I was one of the Board Members of the Nigeria Football Association under the chairmanship of Chief Sunday Dankaro as Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 for the first time where Christian Chukwu as captain of the Green Eagles was declared the best player of the tournament. He led the national team in several battles, which endeared him to millions of football lovers.
“After his playing days, he showed his talents through coaching in Nigeria and abroad.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family he left behind, the football family and the country in general. He will be dearly missed.
“May the good Lord grant his noble soul eternal rest,” he noted.
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Remo Stars are coasting to what will be their greatest moment ever, a win of the Nigeria Premier Football League title, as they recorded a 1-0 win over Shooting Stars in Ibadan in a match played behind closed doors.
In doing so, they achieved their sixth double of the season, having earlier beaten Shooting Stars in the first stanza of the league.
They maintained the seven-point lead over second-placed Rivers United, who also beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt.
After a ding-dong affair, Alex Oyowah scored the vital goal for Remo Stars from a right-wing cross from Ismail Sodiq.
In another match, Ikorodu City continued to work tenaciously to obtain a continental ticket as they held El Kanemi to a 1-1 draw.
SUNDAY RESULTS
- El Kanemi 1-1 Ikorodu City
- Niger Tornados 1-1 Bayelsa United
- Heartland 0-0 Kwara United
- Plateau United 1-0 Akwa United
- Rivers United 1-0 Sunshine Stars
- Shooting Stars 0-1 Remo Stars
- Bendel United 1-1 Nasarawa United
SATURDAY
- Katsina United 0-0 Abia Warriors
- Enyimba 2-1 Kano Pillars
- Lobi Stars 2-4 Enugu Rangers
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