By Israel Ajise
Football lovers in the University of Ibadan have been treated to a ton of upsets, drama and excitement since the commencement of the Science, Education, Arts, Law and Social Sciences(SEALS) Cup on the 29th of September.
This year’s edition has no doubt been brilliant as the SUB Old-Football pitch continues to get packed every match day. Football enthusiasts had expected an improvement in this year’s SEALS’ Cup, and the tournament has truly lived up to the hype.
From the interesting opening ceremony game between the departments of Geography and Petroleum Engineering to Matchday 3, every match played so far has not just been competitive, but featured high quality performances. The competition is gradually moving on from the first stage and into the business end that is, the knockout stage. Only 16 teams will get the available slots that will edge them closer to Champions status.
Matchday 3 of the ongoing SEALS’ Cup started on Monday, October 9, featuring teams from Group A. Just like most groups, the group was still open and the fate of the respective departments was to be decided after the final group matches.
Following a hard-fought match, The Faculty of Science, Deans Cup Winners, Microbiology held off a resilient Petroleum Engineering side to a 1-1 draw. Microbiology scored the opening goal in the second half after their striker, Oladimejitapped the ball into an open net. Without wasting much time, the opponents scored an equalising goal. With all hope of qualifying to the round-of-sixteen slowly slipping away, Petroleum Engineering tried all they could to claim the match winning goal. Talismanic striker, Ojele was very lively; hoping to make things happen for his side. But, not even him could wade off thetight marking from the Microbiology players.
At the fulltime whistle, both teams couldn’t been separated on the scoresheet. The result meant that Petroleum Engineering were the second department from the Faculty of Technology to be knocked out of the SEALS’ Cup, after Mechanical Engineering. While Microbiology had to wait for a favourableresult in the Geography Vs Educational Management game to know their fate.
The last game of Group A was played on Tuesday and what many had thought would be a field day for the defending champions, Geography, turned out to be the worst result they could have imagined. Educational Management caused another upset in the group, by putting two goals past their opponents,thereby, confirming Geography’s early exit and Microbiology’s progress. To make matters worse for the host, Man of the Match of the opening game of the competition, Ilori Michael was red carded at the game’s climax. Against all odds, Educational Management topped Group A with seven points, while Microbiology grabbed the second qualifying spot with four points.
Group B would be more straight forward in deciding its winners and losers. Psychology proved to be easily one of the tournament’s favourites as they defeated all their group rivals to claim maximum points. Fellow Social Sciences’ department, Sociology confirmed their advancement from the group after being controversially awarded a walkover victory against the Arabic and Islamic Studies on Monday. While, a third-place group finish for Wood Products Engineering saw them bid farewell to the competition. They became the third Tech team to exit the competition.
In Group D, the department of Industrial and ProductionEngineering scored seven goals and conceded none in three games to progress to the round-of-sixteen as group winners.Thanks to the pairing of centre-backs, V.K and Bukunmi, IPE have remained solid in defense.
Economics were given no hope of progress, as they lost all their matches, without scoring any in the competition. A 2-0 defeat to Law, 4-0 loss to IPE and a repetitive 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Chemistry resulted in 10 goals conceded, the most by any team in the tournament. Economics were rooted to the bottom of Group D.
Meanwhile, Chemistry department’s victory in their last game versus Economics set them on course knockout stage qualification. Perhaps, the biggest surprise to most is the Faculty of Law failing to pass the group stage of the departmental competition. Law needed to defeat IPE with a big scoreline in Matchday 3 to advance. The Law players however, fell to their second defeat in Group D and left the competition with 0 goal difference.
In Group E, Physiology placed first with a total of 7 points. While Animal Science finished above Classics, with 6 points, 2 points clear of the latter. Debutants, Architecture would have hopped to make a better impression in the tournament. However, the newcomers finished bottom of Group E with 0 points and a goal difference of -3.
In Group F, Statistics and LARIS ended first and second with 9 and 6 points respectively. The remaining departments, Nursing and Geology didn’t bother to show up for their last group match as both teams’ disqualification was already confirmed before kick-off.
Group G was also decided on the final Matchday. Forestry had started the tournament well, with an impressive 1-1 draw against Veterinary Medicine in their opening game. An equalising goal from Morata ensured both sides shared the spoils. Political Science’s first match on the other hand, was a victory against Electrical Engineering. Rollover to Matchday 3, Foretry’s one-goal margin win against Political Science confirmed Veterinary Medicine’s exit. The last match of the group was a dead rubber game that resulted in a walkover victory against Electrical Engineering for the Veterinarians-in-training. Meanwhile, Elect Elect’s exit meant four out of five Tech teams have been knocked out of the 2023 SEALS’ Cup Group Stage.
The tournament will continue on Friday, October 13 with the final matches in Group C and Group H.
