The fixtures for African Hockey qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 have been released. The fixture has been tagged “African Hockey Road To Tokyo 2020”, brila.net can exclusively report.
Super Eagles and Udinese defender William Troost EKong was voted as the Man of the Match in the third place Nations Cup playoff between Nigeria and Tunisia.
Ekong who was the hero, after scoring a last minute winner in Nigeria‘s quarter final win over South Africa, turned vilian following his own goal in the semi-final defeat to Algeria.
The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) said the Nigerian defender had a “Stellar performance” in the 90 minutes showdown and deserves the award.
Ekong who partnered Kenneth Omeruo was instrument in the Nigeria’s defence keeping the Tunisians attack at bay.
Odion Ighalo scored the only goal of the game to help Nigeria beat Tunisia in the third-place play-off at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Ighalo, the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals, tapped in after keeper Moez Ben Cherifia deflected the ball off his own defender Yassine Meriah.
Nigeria have won every third-place play-off final they have ever played in -since 1978, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2019
Nigeria youngster Samuel Chukwueze is on the 80-man Nomination list for the 2019 Golden boy Award after his exploits with the Super Eagles and his Spanish club, Villarreal.
The 20-year-old enjoyed a good campaign for Villarreal last season and he’s part of the Nigerian team that finished to third in the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt.
Chukwueze was voted man of the match in Nigeria win over South Africa where he scored to helped the team reached the semi-final.
Chukwueze is joined on the list by former Flying Eagles captain, Ikouwem Udoh- Utin who impressed at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland last month.
Utin moved from Nigeria professional football league champions Enyimba to Israeli side Maccabi Haifa.
The list is dominated by Europeans players, among them Matthijs DE LIGT, Gianluigi DONNARUMMA, Philip Walter FODEN, Mason Tony MOUNT, Edward Keddar NKETIAH is the brainchild of Italian sports daily Tuttosport and is given to players under 21 years that play in any of the top leagues in Europe.
The Super Eagles finished the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt with yet another ‘Golden Bronze’ medal and it’s the eighth time the team has won it, but the performance of the team and Nigeria Football Federation’s decision to stick with head Coach Gernot Rohr has dominated the media space.
The Super Eagles won the title for the 3rd time back in 2013 in South Africa under the tutelage of late Stephen Keshi , however the team failed qualify for the next two editions of the tournament inEquatorial Guinea and Gabon in 2015 and 2017 respectively, which translates to regression.
Fast forward to 2019 , Nigeria sealed her return to the tournamentafter a 1-1 draw against South Africa in Johannesburg and rendered the last qualifier game against Sychelles useless.
Nigeria soccer fans were delighted to see the team return to the tournament, but the mistake was the believe that the team is good enough to win Nigeria‘s fourth African Cup of Nations crown in Egypt.
Some section of the Nigerian media , who made the general public to believe that winning the African Cup of Nations is the Country‘s birth right could be partly blamed for this immortal lie.
And so, It was not shocking when these section of the media turned critics and asked that the coach should be fired , following the team‘s failure to cross the semi-final hurdles against the Desert Foxes of Algeria at the tournament.
The critics forgot that Egypt, Cameroon and Ghana has more African Cup of Nations titles than the so called Giants of Africa,which means winning record eight bronze medals at the tournament does not make Super Eagles the most successful team in Africa, but ego, pride and past success are successfully getting the better part of the Country’s football stakeholders.
Of course, Nigeria has human and capital resources to rule the continent, but the game has gone beyond just that, it’s good structural organization and grassroots development that leads to sustainable achievements in the game.
Nigeria is far becoming a slave to her rich football past glory , the last time a Nigerian won the African footballer of the year was in 1999 and it shows our players has lost their place among the best from the continent.
In order to be successful again, the Nigeria Football Federation most go back to the drawing board ( if there’s any ), forget about the past achievements and create a new formula to help all national teams succeed , because other countries are doing better.
Therefore, winning a major tournament like African Cup of Nations is never Nigeria‘s birth right and if all stakeholders failed to address the problems rocking the Nigerian football , the country will remain the sleeping Giants of African Football.
Former flying Eagles coach John Obuh has submitted that the current Super Eagles squad is the best Nigeria can get at the moment after winning the AFCON bronze medal on Wednesday night in Cairo.
Obuh told Brila.net in an exclusive interview that Eagles current team deserves continuity, and any mistakes recorded at the tournament will be looked at ahead of subsequent tournaments.
”For now, the players that was paraded are the best we have, until we have discovered new ones and they can’t be outside and be regarded as the best, until they have come inside to be tested.
”If there is any person better than the ones currently in the team then we would remove the one inside and replace him with the one outside, but for now, I still want to say they are the best we have now until when other ones have been tested. ” Obuh concluded.
Former Nigeria international Raphael Chukwu-Ndukwe has described the Super Eagles outing at the 2019 Africa cup of nations as good and far above average after the team picked up the tournament’s Bronze medal courtesy of an Odion Ighalo third minute goal which handed the Super Eagles 1-0 win over the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
Chukwu-Ndukwe speaking in a chat with www.brila.net said the tournament will serve the young Super Eagles team valuable experience moving forward and expects the team to get even better.
He also backs Odion Ighalo to end the tournament as top scorer after hitting goal number 5 in the win against Tunisia which took him 2 goals ahead of closest challenger Sadio Mane on 3 goals.
” I think it’s a good outing for them especially because the last time we played this competition many of the current players were not there except about 3 players.
So it’s a very good show for them and now that they have experience, they will be better prepared next time. I believe he will win the golden boot just like he did during the qualifiers.”
CAF champions league wining coach Kadiri Ikhana has stated that the idea of introducing one leg final in the finals of CAF inter club competitions will open up the challenge and fairness in determining the eventual winner of either the champions league or the Confederation cup as against the practise of playing the finals on home and away basis.
Ikhana who lead Enyimba to CAF champions league glory back in 2003 said playing the final in a neutral ground will eradicate the perceived advantage of the teams who host the second leg ties in previous finals.
“It doesn’t speak well of a final when a team had a mistake I’m the final of a champions league and saw the mistake then go ahead to eradicate the mistake in the second leg.
“Now that chance will not be there. It opens up a fair and balanced challenge on the two teams playing the final when such games are played in a neutral ground.”
Assistant coach of Nigeria’s women national team Mauren Madu has welcomed the decision of CAF to increase the number of participating countries at the biennial Africa women cup of nations tournament from 8 to 12 countries as she believes this will provide opportunity for other countries to feature in the tournament.
Madu speaking in a chat with www.brila.net said the increment will increase competition level and provide more openings for emerging nations to thrive and admitted that it will also challenge the top teams to prepare harder because of longer pathway to the final non terms of more games to be played.
“For CAF they know why they increase the number but I think it’s a welcome development and it will give opportunity for other countries to prepare well and for some to feature at the tournament.
It’s going to be a longer pathway because there will be quarter final matches. So teams will have to be at their best with more knockout games playing through the quarter final, semi final up till the final.”
The Super Eagles of Nigeria might have finished in third place with a bronze medal at the 2019 Africa Nations Cup, but it was down to the goals of striker Odion Ighalo.
Ighalo had endured constant criticisms from Nigeria football faithfuls , following his uninspired performance at the 2018 FIFAWorld Cup, where his misses cost the Super Eagles a place in the round of 16 at the expense of Argentina.
The former Watford of England, however bounced back and scored seven to finish highest goals scorer in the 2019 African Cup Of Nations qualifiers.
His goals helped the country return to the tournament in Egypt, after missing the 2015 and 2017 edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon respectively.
At the tournament proper , the Chinese based attacker is on the verge of winning the golden boot award , after notching a total five goals to help the three times Africa champions maintained their perfect record in the third-place play-off final.
The Super Eagles scored a total of nine goals in Egypt, with Ighalo responsible for five of the goals , as he equalled the record set by Nigerian leading scorer late Rashidi Yekini in a single tournament.
The contributions of Ighalo to national team in the last 14 months should be enough to wash away his World Cup sins in the heart of Nigerian fans.
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