₦airaland Forum

AIG07:
Just had the opportunity of watching the ongoing WAFU competition.
I'm so far pleased with the level of play showed by the participants. I must commend these players and their coaches.

Atleast someone fancy the idea of a Wafu nations cup. Some forumites had a swell time knocking the competition yesterday.

komekn:
Dele Alli came out MK Dons, just like Gomez @Liverpool fc, Lookman @Everton both from Charlton add to that Holegate and Smalling from Barnsley all of these are league 1 clubs. Dominic Lewis from Sheffield United to Everton. That's too mention a few.

The two Crystal palace wingers came out of the Championship Zaha and Bolasie, arguably the best wingers in the Championship, add to that Michail Antonio West Ham, those are top quality players. Currently the best and most promising left back is Ryan Ssegnon he plays for Fulham current price over £30 million. Dembele at Celtic of which a bid of £50 million was refused from Chelsea, came out of the championship with Fulham. Oliver Burke left Nottingham forest for Liepzig in Germany.

I disagree with you completely.


The championship is better considerably better than the Turkish league and any other league rated below 10 in Europe. I would rate the championship higher than both the Dutch and Belgium leagues barring 2/3 top teams. Much higher than all the Nordic leagues for sure.

Britt Asombolanga plays for Middlesbrough fc price £15 million, he rejected premiership offers. He is better than quite a few premiership strikers.

This is exactly what I'm saying. When you cherry pick, you find a hand full who have made the crossover from the Championship.
Some of these guys you listed weren't as highly rated in the Championship like Ince, Charlie Austin, Jordan Rhodes.
We later found out how good they were.

It is best England copied the Spanish method and allow club academies play lower league football than this U23 crap they play.

Let's see what Sessgnon will look like when he gets a move to the Premiership. Very few of them have justified the British hype machine in the end.

Joebie:
The Championship best XI this past weekend

I don't rate the championship. I'm sorry to say this. As far as am concerned, players in the Championship don't cut it for me.
I recall strikers like Gayle, Charlie Austin, Ince, bossing it in the Championship but stagnated when they stepped up to the Premiership. Its only on rare cases that you find the cherry drop like in the case of Delle Alli.
Ultimately, Premier league clubs loan youngsters to championship teams to toughen them up. No wonder top managers like the idea of Premier league teams having their feeder teams play lower league football like it is done in Spain.

I don't expect these names you listed to become household names in football in the foreseeable.

The jury is still out on Tammy Abraham.

Mujtahida:
Then during one of the Pre tournament foreign programmes shown on NTA then they'd just show a man's face and say 'this is the face of Raul'. Fear would just run down my spine. Raul did show his face on that day but the victory was ours at the end of 90 minutes

Reminds me of the story a good friend of mine who went to France 98 narrated. He said when fans where making their way into the arena. Spanish fans would come over to the faces of Nigerian fans and scream, RAUL! RAUL! making gestures of 4:0.
When the game ended, they (the Nigerian fans) went to the faces of the Spanish fans and screamed RAUL! RAUL!

safarigirl:
for now....if he switches, then maybe.

Roge never represented SA, he repped Switzerland, he's Swiss...besides, I don't really count white South Africans as African

Roger Federer have never denied his African origin, you don't have to be black to be African. We have Arabian Africans too, the continent is different from race.

In my opinion though, I think a human being's heritage is better traced from the mothers side. The women are the seed bearers while the man is just like a catalyst who facilitates the chemical process involved in creation.

Anyway, I am so happy for Kevin. Hope he beats Nadal in the final for Africa ☺

The game is on now I believe.

safarigirl:
e no follow

Lol... Just like Dressers no be Nigerian..

safarigirl:
isn't Federe Swiss?

His mom is South African. So.....

Best of luck to South Africa's Kevin Anderson as he takes on Rafa Nadal in the US open final.
Hopefully he can grab the diadem in the end.

Nice to see another African after Roger Federer doing well in tennis.

Come on Kevin, Africa is behind you!

safarigirl:
In other news, Nigeria clinched their second win against Mali with a 90-67 score line.

Ike Nwamu was the man of the day from reports

Cc goldfish80 and thesupernerd

Hopefully the team gets better as the championship progresses. The previous game was too scrapy.
I'm still not getting my hopes up.

forgiveness:
CHELSEA AND ENGLAND SHOULD OPPOSE NIGERIA’S TAMMY ABRAHAM PURSUIT

The latest rumours circulating about a young Chelsea player d[/b]o not deal with transfers or loans but with national team allegiance. If Nigeria are truly chasing Tammy Abraham, both England and Chelsea should be furious.

Tammy Abraham’s decision to play for either England or Nigeria matters deeply not only to the country he chooses, but to Chelsea FC as well. Whether you approach the question from logic or emotion, you reach the same very certain and very firm conclusion: Tammy Abraham should turn down every single advance from Nigeria and stick with England.

The first and most obvious point is that Tammy Abraham – though of Nigerian heritage – was born in Camberwell, London. He was born and raised and reared in the United Kingdom. Yes, his parents are of Nigerian heritage. But at what point does that stop mattering? Every person in the world can trace their bloodline back to some far-flung destination, yet that does not determine their nationality.

Abraham was born in London. He has been at Chelsea since he was eight years old. He did not move to England as a young boy. Tammy Abraham was born the second of October 1997 in perfect damn London, England. He is a wonderful young footballer and a funny, charming young man. He does not need to be peddled by some older, cynical managers and footballing bureaucrats in a strategic chess game of prospect-catching.

MUST READ: Chelsea's 3-4-3 alternatives: Is 3-1-4-2 the future for Antonio Conte's Blues?
The fact that Nigeria are even considering this is exactly what is wrong with international football in the first place. International football is not there to strategically pick your way to progress professionally, and it should not be about cynical attempts to further a brand. It is about pride in the country of your birth. Abraham is from England. Let him be from England.

It was wrong when Victor Moses changed nationalities, and when Diego Costa did it as well. This sort of behavior is to the detriment of the wonderful patriotic moments that make international football great.

If not simply for national pride, Chelsea should hope that Tammy Abraham plays for England for one simple reason: the African Cup of Nations. AFCON takes place in the middle of the Premier League season. If Tammy Abraham is going to be as good as people suspect he will be, then Chelsea need to keep him around.

RELATED STORY: Chelsea's Tammy Abraham must weigh depth, potential in Nigeria offer
Abraham draws comparisons to Ian Wright, and in younger age group trials outshone Kylian Mbappe. Abraham will make Harry Kane look like an incomplete and poor striker in a few years’ time, while taking a legitimate shot at Chelsea’s all-time goals record. The last thing Chelsea need is Abraham gone for a month and a half during a key part of the season.

AFCON is a wonderful footballing tournament played at a hysterically terrible time of year. In many ways it devalues some of the footballers in it, and makes it harder for some clubs to invest in them. Having Abraham play for Nigeria simply lowers his value for Chelsea FC. They will not have him around as often while he increases his risk of injury by playing in a full international tournament in less-than-spectacular conditions in the middle of a Premier League and Champions League season.

NEXT: Chelsea should start Tiemoue Bakayoko against Leicester as prep for Champions League
This move would not benefit anybody except the Nigerian Football Federation. Abraham is a phenomenal young player. He should be setting his sights high on success with the England national team – the country of his birth – not strategically trying to win caps playing for a country he has at most visited on emotional vacations.

http://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/901371251?-18946:4882:0

A very annoying read. The writer tried as much as he can to write off Abraham's Nigerian heritage. Even going further to reduce visiting Nigeria as a nothing more than emotional vacation.
The same Tammy will be tagged a Nigerian by this same writer if he was nabbed with drugs or arrested for murder. Just like they the headline from dailymail read "Nigerian Anthony Joshua arrested with Marijuana" , but when he won the heavy weight world title the same daily mail ran with the headline " British boxer Anthony Joshua wins world title".
I am not the type who will suggest going cap in hand to beg a dual national to play for us but where do we draw the line when the issue of nationality is raised?

This same British rags were quick to tag Adebowale and Adebojo the Woolwich killers as "Nigerians" when these guys haven't visited Africa before.

If they come good, they are definitely English but if they are criminals, they are Nigerians.

It's very painful watching hacks like this writer reduce blogging to to this.

TheSuperNerd:
2010... u know how long ago that is right... Guys like Deji Akindele and Akin Akingbala are surely old war horses but new in the sense of "When did I see these guys recently?" in D'Tigers shirt...

I read and saw before today that Odunsi, Ike iroegbu and Ike Nwamu may actually look good but still... I am not enthusiastic and they all seem new to me because I expected a continuation of the last squad. It is as if we are starting again... annoying!

There's something special about the Daniel Ochefu. He looks a natural leader. He has a quite a history with his state team when they won the their championship. I hear he was the captain of the team. He could turn out to be good for us and Washington wizards.

Ike Iroegbu seems to be my pick out of those you listed. He could be special.

By the way, Micheal Gbinije transfered from Pistons to GOLDEN STATES! How about that?

safarigirl:
those 2015 guys were everything. I don't think much of this set and the NBBF President is apparently just another corrupt Nigerian

Did you see the list of staff?

Coach is Igbo and his two assistants are Yoruba and Hausa respectively, what a truly Nigerian team

They're going to be home early....but doesn't matter, what matters is that Nigerians coach the team...

Ike Diogu has to be like the Mikel of our basketball team. Doesn't matter who gets cut or if the team is reshuffled, he'll always be in it

What a joke. I didn't notice the federal character in the employment of the coaches.

Ike Diogu was mostly on the bench due to injury in the last championship. Yet the team went all the way. That alone is a demonstration of how strong the team was. Even without their best player, they went all the way.

soetanoreoluwa:
It's seem Voigt job was a volunteer job... Needed to prove some set of guys wrong according to some report I read when he was hired back then... His heart is still with Nigeria followed on twitter

It seems he worked without payment or little payment... NBBF couldnot afford him...

According to the new coach Alex Nwora he said bulk of the players are injured they couldn't make it to the tournament... Nigeria is just somehow... They are giving them good preparations...

If not for coach Voigt won't attain any position in Africa the dude sacrifice alot for Nigeria to become a champion... Wish them good luck

Ime Udoka recommended Voigt to the Nbbf. II understand Voigt to was contracted just for championships. He was not domiciled in Nigeria.

TheSuperNerd:
You are right.... Nwora and co went for a new mix of Height and Size above Skills and Team continuity.... He should have known better... I have the list of the boys/men trying to win Nigeria her second afrobasket title but I am not so enthusiastic... I will just try to follow them shaa... two home based... the rest are based abroad but relatively unknowns and untested... This will be one "long" afrobasket campaign indeed... Imagine Champs missing... chaaaiiiiii... say no more.

Some of those guys have played for Nigeria in the past. I think a couple of them (apart from Diogu) played in 2010

safarigirl:
We won by the skin of our teeth...game ended 78-77....lucky win, goes to show how weak this team is compared to the last one. Hopefully, they get better as the tournament progresses

However, Uganda is currently winning Angola 44-29 after the first half. Pretty shocking considering the pedigree of both teams.

I think Senegal will win this tournament

Cc goldfish80

If Senegal came to town with Djeng. They will walk the tournament.
Tunisia will be in the mix too. They gave us all kinds of problems the last time. Were the only team to win us. And they are playing on home court

TheSuperNerd:
D'Tigers led by Coach Alex Nwora don't give me much to hope about.... I miss Will Voigt and most of the boys from 2015. All were available except Benjamin Uzoh who said he had to withdraw from the tournament...

I am miffed that the NBBF didn't retain Voigt....

I ran through the list of players we went to defend the title with and discovered they are mostly big men and power forwards. Iyke Diogu and this 6ft2 point guard are just about those with abilities to shoot from outside the arc.
The brand of basketball will be totally different from what we saw last time. This is very depressing.
I am following Chamberlain Oguchi's YouTube channel devoted to D'tigers. From what I saw of the videos, these guys were like a band of brothers.
For goodness sake, why break the team up like this? We are talking about a bunch of guys who battled to qualify for the Olympics via play-offs, then matured into a squash buckling side that walked the Afro basket.

The Nbbf boss in an interview I saw on TV said they needed a Nigeria coach. That was the reason Voigt was off contract. My television nearly went through the window when I saw the interview.

Update on Ngr vs Civ scores please?

Safarigirl, anyone?

Hope they didn't mess up?

safarigirl:
Voigt is not in charge? ....they sha want to finish us.

No Gbinije. No Oguchi the Master of 3-points, the Aminu brothers are gone...please tell me Stanley Okoye is there at least

Who employed a Nigerian coach to begin with? We just might crash out in the group stage

I haven't been able to hold it together since I saw the team list. What is the method to this madness?

I know this is off football or Super Eagles but please anyone have an idea why we are heading into the Afro Basket championship with Ike Diogu as the only familiar face in the team?
I'm still scratching my head why we are going into a championship of that magnitude as the defending Champions and a place at the world championships in view without Al farouk Aminu, Champs Oguchi. SHANE Lawal, Ben Uzo, Micheal Gbinije and the rest of the crew that dominated Africa back in 2015. The team I saw in 2015 should have been able to win this thing 3x at a spin, but we have seemed to have broken them up with even a Nigerian coach in charge now.
What happened to Voigt?
Have they gone loco at the NBBF?
If anyone can clear me up I don't mind. I can't seem to find the Afro basket thread.

This is a very tough game to analyse to be honest.
I felt the team played a very tactical game, following a well laid out plan from the bench. They played like a team who was set up not to loose. The first 20 minutes was to avoid conceeding and try to keep the Camerounians at bay, the next phase of the game was to excert pressure on their defence. Solid game management I must say based on the circumstance we found our selves needing just a Point from the encounter.

We got a goal and waited for the Camerounians to react so we can get the ball behind their defence with our pacey strikers when they committed players forward. To execute this sort of game plan required zero margin for errors but unfortunately, we conceeded a penalty.


On the part of the Camerounians, they frustrated our engine room (Mikel) by allowing him no room to dictate the tempo of the game. They tried to cut off passing lanes from the defence to the midfield as much as possible which resulted in the Super Eagles launching balls up front.

I will rate Victor Moses, Balogun, Alhaji Shehu and Odion as our best performers. All the same, I would have bitten off the fingers of anyone who offered me 4points out available 6 against Cameroon when the seeding was made. Not a bad result at all.

Best Zambia and qualify with a game to spare. This was our wish when the seeding was made. We are well on course.

tbaba1234:
Rangers were given a soft last minute penalty against enyimba

There could well have been 4 penalties in the Rangers game. Handballs, pushing and holding in the 18 yard box... The desperation for points is real.

safarigirl:
cancer is peculiar to no one, my grandma died of cancer sef.

Anyway, Carl Ikeme is half Caucasian so.....

I don't mean cancer generally. Leukemia in particular seems to be peculiar with Caucasians. Haven't come across a negroid suffering from leukemia. I can be totally wrong anyway.

safarigirl:
....yet 20-year old Alampasu is being called a kid in Nigeria

Alampasu is being groomed to step up post 2018 World Cup. That is how I see his situation anyway. Everything all depends on how good he comes thereafter. There seems to be a special interest on him by national team handlers.

Personally, I like his height, I understand he's about 6ft6 (I can be wrong). Perfect height for a goalkeeper. But something about him seems odd. Maybe I need to watch him closely again to assess him by from what I saw at the U17 world cup, his technic was suspect. Like he's not a natural.
I'm open minded to watch him play again anyway.

Mickael2:
I am guessing his own severely affected his platelets, you can't play football like that, atleast the doctors will advice you not to.

Take this for instance, if you fall down you will see a red dot on your skin, that is actually minor internal injury, if your platelets are defaultive that means the complex combo of fibrinogen and thromboplast won't occur and that means incessant blood loss and that means death, death from a minor red dot on your skin, is that worth the risk?

Nawao.. To be honest I thought this condition was peculiar to Caucasians.

TheSuperNerd:
Okay First of all... Leukemia is a kind of cancer. A cancer of the blood where the white blood cells are mainly affected including the bone marrow.
The anormaly is that the white blood cells are produced in large quantities and most if not all fail to mature and this disrupts the balanced ratio of red blood cells (responsible for Oxygen carriage) to White blood cells (responsible for fighting infections).

When this happens and infections and pathogens do invade the body, these immature WBCs cannot fight back. And when these leukemic WBCs accumulate beyond the normal, it interferes with Vitally precious organ amd system functions/physiology.

It affects red blood cells production meaning oxygen carriage will be threatened big time. And also platelets formation will start reducing and without platelets there will be no clotting of wounds and bruises.

So a leukemic person becomes vulnerable on the outside to any bodily harm such as bruises, internal or external harms such as bleeding and even more infections.

So that is a start... yes it is terrible but medical science has made it possible for Leukemia to be beaten.



And additionally like I told Mujtahida... it is acute Leukemia... not chronic. What I am not yet sure of is whether it is Acute Myeloid or Acute Lymphoblastic... but whatever the case his chances are quite good. He should only remian positive and so far he is doing a good job of it.

Thank you.
Atleast I learnt something new today.
The most I know about anything health related is taking asprin for headache. Don't blame me, I'm just an ordinary engineer.

Mickael2:
they said it's acute leukamia, well it depends primarily on his blood group and how strong he is(his heart specifically), no need going deep, the report has it that Ikeme is a strong guy(I am guessing the strong guy means his heart and blood group makes sense) so he may play again, after more than a year of theraphy, I think he might even need a serious dose of psychotheraphy after that 1 year, making it to the world cup? 40% likely

Thanks for the reply. I had to ask because I followed the case of Stylian Petrov. He never returned to football after his diagnosis.

tbaba1234:
17 year old scoring a big goal for Wales.

Check out @ViktorFagerLFC's Tweet: http://twitter.com/ViktorFagerLFC/status/904095799159787521?s=09

Seems to be a good weekend for youngsters.
I watched Venezuela play against Colombia. The Venezuelans had a 19yr old keeper. To say he was solid will be an understatement. The boy was a beast in goal.

TheSuperNerd:
I saw a clip on twitter on Enyeama's progress with his right knee... he seems to be working hard to get back into shape... I reckon that by Year end or January he will be back... Enyeama will return but Only if he can get himself a club by January according to Gernot Rohr.

Ikeme is also still in the picture if he can return early enough from his health setback.

So for now... Ezenwa it is. Followed by Alampasu is who making progress in Portugal. And ofcos Ajiboye is there and The not-so-reliable Akpeyi.

Outside these we have David Nwokolor at Rijeka too. The situation is what it is... but Ezenwa seems better than Akpeyi confidence-wise and handles-wise.

Can any health expert in the house please enlighten me about leukemia? Because when first I heard about Ikeme's situation, I felt his career was finished.

TheSuperNerd:
Russia 2018: Super Eagles Storm Yaoundé to Ensure Qualification
By Duro Ikhazuagbe in Yaoundé

https://i2.wp.com/s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/leadersandco/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/06020316/SUPER-EAGLES-COACH-ROHR-AND-PLAYERS.jpg



After demystifying African champions Cameroon in Uyo on Friday with the resounding 4-0 defeat of the Indomitable Lions, the Super Eagles are scheduled to storm Yaoundé this morning for the reverse fixture of the World Cup qualifier.

According to the programme rolled out by the Nigeria Football Football (NFF) yesterday, the 80-man Nigerian delegation is scheduled to fly out of the Akwa Ibom capital by a chartered Arik Air flight into Yaoundé before noon.

Eagles are aiming to do a double on the Cameroonians by picking all six points in the Russia 2018 double header between both countries within a space of four days.

With Zambia’s 3-1 defeat of Algeria in Lusaka yesterday in Group B’s other match of the qualifiers to move up into the second spot, the Indomitable Lions were further pushed down to the third position on just two points from three games.

Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, allowed his wards the luxury of recovery from the bruising battle with Cameroon on Friday with just light workout.

While the wounded Cameroonians returned to full training almost immediately on reaching their base, Eagles took time out to watch clips of the game all over again and made corrections in areas the handlers considered not in line with the game plan put in place by Rohr.

A top NFF official told THISDAY in Uyo that the players are in high spirit and believe that they can repeat the feat in Yaounde tomorrow.

“The players have regained their self-belief and are now set to prove that the feat in Uyo was no fluke. They are aiming to pick all six points from the Cameroonians by also winning the second leg,” stressed the top football official to THISDAY at the Ibom Meridian Resort in Uyo last night.

Captain of the team, John Mikel Obi, was full of excitement when asked what to expect from the reverse fixture.

“I have no doubt in my mind that we are going to consolidate on our leadership of the group come Monday in Yaoundé. We are going there to improve on the game we played at home here in Uyo when we take on the Cameroonians again.”

The Super Eagles and the Nigerian delegation is scheduled to leave straight from the Omnisport Stade Ahmadu Ahidjo to the airport for the return journey to Abuja on Monday night.



Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/09/03/russia-2018-super-eagles-storm-yaounde-to-ensure-qualification/

I will personally report the Super Eagles to FIFA for Match fixing if they loose to Cameroun. No way you will beat a team 4:0 and go down to the same team with the same players 72hrs thereafter.

My ratings going by my personal observations

Ezenwa : a commanding display by the glovesman. Caught everything that came his way with abit of showmanship. A very solid performance by Ezenwa, although he was well protected by the midfield and defense but still did his job.
However, Ezenwa being Ezenwa as usual was too playful. His penchant to play while on duty is one of the reasons why I don't fancy his style. Kudos all the same. 9/10



Shehu: A solid display by the right back. Unlike the previous game against South Africa, he came to the party today. Combined well with Moses Simon and guarded his part of the pitch. I can't recall a cross coming in from his flank.
Solid! 7.5/10

Elderson : Steady performance by the left back. Obviously doesn't have the verve and energy to provide an outlet while the team attacked however, he did his job and totally marked out Bassogog, which was key to shoting down the Lions (cubs) attacks. 7.0/10

Ekong : Did nothing flashy. Was just solid and went about his job. However, he needs to improve on his ball distribution. He sent many passes astray in the first half. 7.5/10

Balogun : Did a yo man's job all day long. What a player. With due respect to Mainz, Balogun deserves to play in a bigger stage. This was his best performance in the GWG Jersey. He was just unplayable today. Top top player. 9.9/10

Ndidi : Really struggled to assert himself in first 10-15 mins. But once he got going, he locked down the midfield. He wasn't going to be bullied into submission. A very brave performance by Wilfred Ndidi.
Rating :8/10

Onazi : As we have come to expect from Onazi, a very robust and highly spirited display. Always within 5yards to any potential danger or flash point. When Mikel was substituted like we saw against Algeria, he had the liberty to press higher up the pitch and this time around his high press earned him an assist.
Rating:8/10

Mikel Obi : My Mvp of the game. Mikel was the brains behind the dismantling of the African champions. Made an assist, got a goal and a even a pre assist for the 3rd goal. He totally dismantled the Camerounians. I wouldn't be surprised if he had 100% pass accuracy in this game. Incredible performance by Mikel.
Rating: 9.9/10

Moses Simon : Had fun running down the right flank against the sorry Camerounian left-back. Skinned the poor guy, time and time again.His combinations with Shehu, Ighalo and Ndidi was such a sight to behold. Should have capped off a fine evening performance with a goal.
However, on the back of this performance and the South African game, it's safe to say Ahmed Musa have been eased out of the Super Eagles first 11 by Simon. Kudos Simon! Bravo!
Ratings :9.0/10

Moses Victor : As usual was the teams live wire. Relentless I'm attack and solid when defending. A nightmare to play against. He played like a possessed man.
But for better decision making, he could have easily got himself a hattrick today.
Rating: 9.0/10

Odion Ighalo :Being the first player to hit camp, his hunger wasn't in doubt at all. From the first whistle, he hustled, harassed and hassled the Camerounians all night long. He held the ball up well, imposed himself and dominated Tekei and co in the physical battle. Brought much needed speed, skills and physicality to the front line. Refreshing performance by Mr Ighalo. Opened the floodgates with a well taken goal. I hope the physios stitch him up in time for the return leg.
Rating: 8.8/10

Agu : Recycled the ball well. Nothing spectacular.
Rating :5.0/10

Kelechi : Played the role of a sub well. Nicely linked up with Moses a couple of times. Took his goal well. 8.0/10

Musa: The game was already buried before he came in.
5.0/10

I hope the lives and properties of Nigerians in Cameroun are safe after this game.

Moses Simon have been a beast in this game. What a performance wow! Nice cross by Onazi and a lovely tap in by Kelechi.
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