Nigerian Football
KANO GUN FOR FIRST NIGERIAN NATIONAL CUP TITLE IN 66 YEARS
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Kano Pillars are the overwhelming favourites to win the Nigerian national cup, the Aiteo Cup on Sunday in Kaduna. Not only are they the most fanatically supported Nigerian club, they are going into the Aiteo Cup final match as runners-up in the recently concluded Nigerian elite league.
Paradoxically, despite the club’s pedigree in Nigerian football, it is yet to win the national cup. It sounds astonishing considering the fact that that the club has won the league four times in the last 12 seasons.
The last time the national cup went to the ancient city of Kano was when the then township-selected side beat the Teslimi Balogun-inspired Lagos Dynamos 2-1 in 1953.
In the following year, Kano were again in the final and appeared will be the next side to win the cup back-to-back after the feat of Lagos Railways in 1948 and 1949, but Kano crumbled 4-3 to Calabar even as it rallied back from three goals down in the first half.
It was the same cruel fate of Kano in 1954 that Kano suffered last year when the club lost a three-goal advantage at half time to Rangers International in the final match of Aiteo Cup in Asaba.
When Kano lost the 1954 final match, it took another 35 years before a club from the North won the competition as Aham Nwankwo broke the jinx with BCC Lions unexpected beating the then Iwuanyanwu Nationale (now Heartland) 1-0 in Bauchi.
Before then, Kano Pillars’ predecessors in Kano, the Raccah Rovers had lost to Shooting Stars in the 1977 final match, the only one ever played on a Sunday morning.
The 1977 congested fixtures occasioned the Sunday morning final match as a winner’s name must be forwarded to by telegram to CAF headquarters before noon on that day. Raccah Rovers protested a goal scored by Segun Odegbami in the 77th minute and subsequently staged a walk out. Two minutes before then, Segun Odegbami had lost a penalty kick but later scored from free kick.
The match was awarded to Shooting Stars with a 2-0 score line. This Sunday’s match will be Kano Pillars’ third attempt having failed in 1991 and 2018.
Kano Pillars were beaten 3-2 by El Kanemi Warriors in the 1991 final and last year they agonizingly lost in the ensuing penalty shootout after Rangers fought back from three-goal deficit to tie at 3-3.
Will this year belong to the Kano Pillars?
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.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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