Nigerian Football
NIGERIA: No more Journeyman, vows Eguavoen
BY WALE AJAYI.
Former Super Eagles’ player and later coach, Austin Eguavoen who was on Tuesday unveiled as new manager of relegation threatened Sunshine Stars, has vowed to remain on the job rather than quit as he did before to other Nigerian clubs.
He was unveiled along with former national team goalkeeper who also had been goalkeeper trainer, Ike Shorunmu. Both were part of a four-man technical crew put together to save the Akure club. They are not just to steer the club out of relegation waters, the management wants the quartet put Sunshine Stars among genuine contenders for the Federation Cup, Nigeria’s national tournament and the oldest competition in the country.
Eguavoen as new technical adviser of the club is one N1 million monthly package, the same salary of his immediate predecessor, Kayode Olujohungbe.
Chairman of the three-man Interim committee set up recently by Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, to rescue the sinking club, Gbenga Elegbeleye expressed confidence in the abilities of both Eguavoen and Shorunmu, to improve the fortunes of the club.
“We have a mandate to do what is best for this club. Our committee is worried with the dwindling fortune of a club we all call the pride of Ondo state.
“His Excellency, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, in setting up this committee, charged us, to turn around many things that have gone wrong in the last few years. We are to ensure that sunshine stars does not go on relegation and the only way we can achieve that is by getting two of the best coaches currently, in the job, to come and help us make this dream a reality.
“After finishing second to Atletico Madrid at the LA LIGA future champions competition in South Africa last month, a few PSL clubs wanted Eguavoen to take up a coaching job in the South African premier soccer league but he turned them down because of the relationship we have built over the years.
“We are confident therefore that with his wealth of experience, he can take Sunshine stars out of the relegation waters”, Elegbeleye, a former Director General at the now scrapped National Sports Commission remarked.
Eguavoen, a former Enyimba, COD and Gombe United coach, will take charge of the Sunshine Stars till the end of the current football season with the option of an extension and improved deal, based on performance.
“I am a coach who believes in my ability. I would not have accepted this job if I was not sure that I have what it takes to succeed on it.
“I walked out of COD and Gombe United but I want to make a promise here today, that I will not walk out of Sunshine Stars,
“ I want to implore everyone of you, the players, the fans and the management to give my technical crew your maximum support because that is the only way we can make any headway in the long run Eguavoen said”
Sunshine stars currently sits on eighteenth spot in the twenty teams log and must win at least ten of their last nineteen premier league matches to stand any chance of surviving the drop.
Nigerian champions, Enugu Rangers have been beaten 4-3 by visiting Kano Pillars in the Match Day 7 of the Nigeria Premier Football League.
The visitors went into the lead in 15th minute when Rabiu Ali converted a penalty kick. They doubled the lead in the 28th minute through Zulkifilu Rabiu before Rabiu Ali extended the lead to 3-0 in the 37th minute after converting another penalty kick.
The game turned into a nightmare for Rangers as Ahmed Musa made it 4-0 in the first minute of the added time.
Rangers began a fight back in the opening minutes of the second half as Isaac Saviour pulled a goal back in the 47th minute. Twelve minute later he scored a second goal to reduce the tally to 4-2. Emmanuel Silas Nenrot made the score line a more respectable for Rangers when he scored a third goal in the added time.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
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