SPORTS CAFE WITH EMERALD

Sports café with Emerald
Prodigal son returns
_Several stories (from different writers) have written about a certain prodigal son who left his family but came back the moment he realised his mistakes. A certain young man in the super eagles has had to face similar fate except for the fact that the supposed father is proud and arrogant as well. Ikechukwu Uche left the fold of the national team on the basis of indiscipline but was not allowed back long time ago even after realising his errors. The supposed father, Steven Keshi has had to take his own portion of the blame for not standing in the father’s position. Steven Keshi was sacked and reinstalled as the super eagle’s gaffer after some background lobbying. Much has been said about the eagle’s manager; from pride to stubbornness even to the level of tactical ineptitude. He called back his prodigal son when he realised his position been threatened by powers that be and coaches who wants him out of the national team. The so-called indiscipline player was the same who drew the first blood in the 2-0 away defeat of DR Congo in far-away land.
_South Africa qualify
The South African national team (Bafana Bafana) qualified against the run of play ahead of Nigeria in the aftermath of the matches played across Africa over the weekend. They successfully put an end to Sudan’s misery when they defeated the Central North African side by 2-1. Sudan is now out of the four horse qualification race to the African Cup of Nations scheduled to take place in Equatorial Guinea. Ghana was stunned when they failed to beat their opponent in Banjul. Gambia postponed the four time African champion’s qualification to the last match. Ghana lost the duel by 1-0.
Countries
Points

South Africa
11

Nigeria
7

DR Congo
7

Sudan
4

Nigeria Vs South Africa
DR Congo Vs Sudan
The new Uyo stadium
_In Nigeria, the building and maintenance of stadium have been the bone of contention in recent years. The Abuja national stadium is just another topic we would probably not want to elaborate on as we all can draw scenes and lessons from our closest stadium, the Adamasigba stadium. The national stadium in Surulere is another aspect not much people would love to ponder on as I have seen frogs from dead waters along the lawn, within the spectator stands and the swimming pool which ought to be an Olympic standard pool as regards to purity and fancy. This is a clear view of the new Uyo stadium, and what reason do we hold in our heart for not loving it? Truly love at first sight. The match between Nigeria and the South African team will be held in this magnificent stadium. Indeed the stadium of light.
Can Enyeama win the African player award?
I have always been an advocate of indiscrimination and fairness in soccer, a battle I am not ready to let go. Soccer awards all around the world have never been voted in favour of the last men on the football pitch. A situation that kept begging the question, is there fair play in soccer? With a wide range of experience in soccer analysis, I have been able to understand the single fact that for every goal scored, there is an equal and opposite goal saved. Soccer in all fairness has seen the goal keepers suffer the most and to make issues more complicating; they become the first victim of blames when their darling team lose the game. Vincent Enyeama came to the lime-light of global soccer and recognition when he kept the gate of his career safe from the invading English national team in the 2002 FIFA world cup, Korea/Japan. He stopped the goal bound shot of the famous Paul Scholes, a ferocious shot from a famous foot whose kind is scarce in recent times. He has been our number 1 goal keeper ever since then by beaten competition from Augustin Ejide. If statistics are to be followed then we must agree that winners of the African player of the year awards must balance the scale of club and national team performance; a hurdle which Vincent Enyeama scaled through when he was voted the best African player in the 2014 FIFA world cup held in Brazil. He is presently an African champion considering the fact that Nigeria remains the champion of Africa, he was voted the best goal keeper in the previous African Cup of Nation in 2013. Vincent Enyeama retains the best ever African goal keeper to grace the French League and he is number two in the entire league history of goal keepers who have kept clean sheet when he played 11 matches without conceding a single goal last November. He was pivotal in his club’s qualification to the UEFA champion’s league. _ He is a champion in the making and now is the time for all Nigerians to ensure that he is crowned the BBC and CAF African player of the year award. The last goal keeper to win the CAF award was Badu Zaki of Morocco who won it in the 80s. Let us ensure that one of our own is crown the African king with competition coming from Gervinho of AS Roma and Yaya Toure of Manchester City, both from Ivory Coast. Follow the link below:
http://bbc.co.uk/sport/football/african/afoty-vote/2014-nojs
It can only cost you 10 seconds of your time to make history and ensure that one of your own is crowned the African king like Didier Drogba, Nwankwo Kanu and Etoo Fils

Dean’s cup special
GROUP A
GROUP B

Petroleum Engineering
Food Technology
Mechanical Engineering
Industrial & Production Engr.
Agricultural & Environmental Engr.
Civil Engineering
Electrical Engineering

Match day 1
Petroleum Vs Food Tech
Industrial Vs

Match day 2
Civil Vs Electrical
Mechanical Vs Food Tech

Match day 3
Mechanical Vs Food Tech

Match day 4
Industrial Vs Civil
Electrical Vs Agric & Envr.

Match day 5
Petroleum Vs Mechanical

Match day 6
Industrial Vs Electrical
Civil Vs Agric & Envr.

Match day 7
1st A Vs 2nd B
1st B Vs 2nd A

Match day 8
REST

Match day 9
FINAL.
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