Joseph1013's Posts
Nairaland Forum › Joseph1013's Profile › Joseph1013's Posts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 (of 184 pages)
 Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 7:29am On Jun 20, 2018 |
safarigirl:Chai...this thread has turned downside up.  I think we should wait till the end of the third match. Believe! 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 7:22am On Jun 20, 2018 |
THE GREAT DIVIDE--WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? There is a line that divides humanity. On one side are people who understand they are born into a culture that has developed over thousands of years. It has a veneer of modernity welded to a solid base of ancient history. People on this side understand that culture changes but change is slow because we are programmed to respect and maintain our culture. People on this side appreciate the need to review and challenge culture. They do not see it as sacred truth and wholly good, but as a tool that should serve us well and not hold us back. We call this side of the divide the Not-Daft side. On the other side of the divide are people who are prisoners of their culture. They revere it and will not see it challenged and will fight change every step of the way. These people see the here-and-now but are blind to the big picture--they see their culture as a venerated shibboleth with intrinsic value rather than as a tool to be refined and improved. We call this side of the divide, the Daft side. Nowhere is this divide more apparent than in the aspect of culture known as religion. Fortunately, it is possible to change sides. 6 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 7:20am On Jun 20, 2018 |
CAPSLOCKED:FUNNY |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 5:37am On Jun 19, 2018 |
SerVik:Inspirational, bro! Thanks for sharing. |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 4:26pm On Jun 18, 2018 |
I'VE GOT SOME THINGS TO SAY by Romelu Lukaku remember the exact moment I knew we were broke. I can still picture my mum at the refrigerator and the look on her face. I was six years old, and I came home for lunch during our break at school. My mum had the same thing on the menu every single day: Bread and milk. When you’re a kid, you don’t even think about it. But I guess that’s what we could afford. Then this one day I came home, and I walked into the kitchen, and I saw my mum at the refrigerator with the box of milk, like normal. But this time she was mixing something in with it. She was shaking it all up, you know? I didn’t understand what was going on. Then she brought my lunch over to me, and she was smiling like everything was cool. But I realized right away what was going on. She was mixing water in with the milk. We didn’t have enough money to make it last the whole week. We were broke. Not just poor, but broke. My father had been a pro footballer, but he was at the end of his career and the money was all gone. The first thing to go was the cable TV. No more football. No more Match of the Day. No signal. Then I’d come home at night and the lights would be shut off. No electricity for two, three weeks at a time. Then I’d want to take a bath, and there would be no hot water. My mum would heat up a kettle on the stove, and I’d stand in the shower splashing the warm water on top of my head with a cup. There were even times when my mum had to “borrow” bread from the bakery down the street. The bakers knew me and my little brother, so they’d let her take a loaf of bread on Monday and pay them back on Friday. I knew we were struggling. But when she was mixing in water with the milk, I realized it was over, you know what I mean? This was our life. https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/95f7bb22-romelulukaku-quotecard1-artboard-1.jpg?width=1440 I didn’t say a word. I didn’t want her to stress. I just ate my lunch. But I swear to God, I made a promise to myself that day. It was like somebody snapped their fingers and woke me up. I knew exactly what I had to do, and what I was going to do. I couldn’t see my mother living like that. Nah, nah, nah. I couldn’t have that. People in football love to talk about mental strength. Well, I’m the strongest dude you’re ever going to meet. Because I remember sitting in the dark with my brother and my mom, saying our prayers, and thinking, believing, knowing … it’s going to happen. I kept my promise to myself for a while. But then some days I’d come home from school and find my mum crying. So I finally told her one day, “Mum, it’s gonna change. You’ll see. I’m going to play football for Anderlecht, and it’s going to happen soon. We’ll be good. You won’t have to worry anymore.” I was six. I asked my father, “When can you start playing professional football?” He said, “Sixteen.” I said, “O.K., sixteen then.” It was going to happen. Period. Let me tell you something — every game I ever played was a Final. When I played in the park, it was a Final. When I played during break in kindergarten, it was a Final. I’m dead-ass serious. I used to try to tear the cover off the ball every time I shot it. Full power. We weren’t hitting R1, bro. No finesse shot. I didn’t have the new FIFA. I didn’t have a Playstation. I wasn’t playing around. I was trying to kill you. When I started growing taller, some of the teachers and the parents would be stressing me. I’ll never forget the first time I heard one of the adults say, “Hey, how old are you? What year were you born?” I’m like, What? Are you serious? When I was 11 years old, I was playing for the Lièrse youth team, and one of the parents from the other team literally tried to stop me from going on the pitch. He was like, “How old is this kid? Where is his I.D.? Where is he from?” I thought, Where am I from? What? I was born in Antwerp. I’m from Belgium. My dad wasn’t there, because he didn’t have a car to drive to my away games. I was all alone, and I had to stand up for myself. I went and got my I.D. from my bag and showed it to all the parents, and they were passing it around inspecting it, and I remember the blood just rushing through me … and I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna kill your son even more now. I was already going to kill him, but now I’m gonna destroy him. You’re gonna drive the boy home crying now.” I wanted to be the best footballer in Belgian history. That was my goal. Not good. Not great. The best. I played with so much anger, because of a lot of things … because of the rats running around in our apartment … because I couldn’t watch the Champions League … because of how the other parents used to look at me. I was on a mission. When I was 12, I scored 76 goals in 34 games. I scored them all wearing my dad’s shoes. Once our feet got to be the same size, we used to share. One day I called up my grandfather — my mum’s dad. He was one of the most important people in my life. He was my connection back to Congo, where my mum and dad are from. So I was on the phone with him one day, and I said, “Yeah, I’m doing really well. I scored 76 goals, and we won the league. The big teams are noticing me.” And usually, he always wanted to hear about my football. But this time it was strange. He said, “Yeah, Rom. Yeah, that’s great. But can you do me a favor?” I said, “Yeah, what is it?” He said, “Can you look after my daughter, please?” I remember being so confused. Like, what’s Grandad on about? I said, “Mum? Yeah, we’re cool. We’re O.K.” He said, “No, promise me. Can you promise me? Just look after my daughter. Just look after her for me, O.K.?” I said, “Yeah, Granddad. I got it. I promise you.” Five days later he passed away. And then I understood what he really meant. It makes me so sad to think about, because I just wish that he could have lived another four years to see me play for Anderlecht. To see that I kept my promise, you know? To see that everything was going to be O.K. I told my mum that I would make it at 16. I was late by 11 days. May 24, 2009. The playoff final. Anderlecht vs. Standard Liège. https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/a64a5913-gettyimages-97051781.jpg?width=1000 That was the craziest day of my life. But we have to back up for a minute. Because at the start of the season, I was barely playing for the Anderlecht U-19s. The coach had me coming off the bench. I’m like, “How the hell am I going to sign a pro contract on my 16th birthday if I’m still on the bench for the U-19s?” So I made a bet with our coach. I told him, “I’ll guarantee you something. If you actually play me, I’m going to score 25 goals by December.” He laughed. He literally laughed at me. I said, “Let’s make a bet then.” He said, “O.K., but if you don’t score 25 by December, you’re going to the bench.” I said, “Fine, but if I win, you’re going to clean all the minivans that take the players home from training.” He said, “O.K., it’s a deal.” I said, “And one more thing. You have to make pancakes for us every day.” He said, “O.K., fine.” That was the dumbest bet that man ever made. I had 25 by November. We were eating pancakes before Christmas, bro. Let that be a lesson. You don’t play around with a boy who’s hungry! I signed my pro contract with Anderlecht on my birthday, May 13. Went straight out and bought the new FIFA and a cable package. It was already the end of the season, so I was at home chilling. But the Belgian league was crazy that year, because Anderlecht and Standard Liege had finished tied on points. So there was a two-leg playoff to decide the title. During the first leg, I’m at home watching on TV like a fan. Then the day before the second leg, I get a phone call from the coach of the reserves. “Hello?” “Hello, Rom. What are you doing?” “About to go play football in the park.” “No, no, no, no, no. Pack your bags. Right now.” “What? What did I do?” “No, no, no. You need to get to the stadium right now. The first team wants you now.” “Yo …. What?! Me?!” “Yeah, you. Come now.” I literally sprinted into my dad’s bedroom and was like, “Yo! Get your ass up right now! We gotta go, man!” He’s like, “Huh? What? Go where?” I’m like, “ANDERLECHT, MAN.” I’ll never forget, I showed up to the stadium, and I like pretty much ran into the dressing room and the kitman said, “O.K., kid, what number do you want?” And I said, “Give me number 10.” Hahahaha! I don’t know. I was too young to be scared I guess. He was like, “Academy players have to take 30 and above.” I said, “O.K., well, three plus six equals nine, and that’s a cool number, so give me 36.” That night at the hotel, the senior players made me sing a song for them at dinner. I can’t even remember what I picked. My head was spinning. The next morning, my friend literally knocked on the door of my house to see if I wanted to play football and my mum was like, “He’s out playing.” My friend said, “Playing where?” She said, “The final.” We got off the bus at the stadium, and every single player walked in wearing a cool suit. Except me. I came off the bus wearing a terrible tracksuit, and all the TV cameras were right in my face. The walk to the locker room was like 300 meters. Maybe a three-minute walk. As soon as I put my foot in the locker room, my phone starts blowing up. Everybody had seen me on TV. I had 25 messages in three minutes. My friends were going crazy. “Bro?! WHY ARE YOU AT THE GAME?!” “Rom, what is happening? WHY ARE YOU ON TV?” The only person I texted back was my best friend. I said, “Bro, I don’t know if I’m gonna play. I don’t know what’s going on. But just keep watching the TV.” In the 63rd minute, the manager subbed me on. I ran out onto the field for Anderlecht at 16 years and 11 days old. We lost the final that day, but I was already in heaven. I made good on my promise to my mother and to my grandad. That was the moment I knew we were gonna be O.K. https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/73bd5c33-romelulukakuquotecard2artboard-1.jpg?width=1440 The next season, I was still finishing up my last year of high school and playing in the Europa League at the same time. I used to have to take a big bag to school so I could catch a flight in the afternoon. We won the league by a mile, and I finished second for African Player of the Year. It was just … crazy. I actually expected all that to happen, but maybe not so fast. All of sudden, the media was building me up, and putting all these expectations on me. Especially with the national team. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t playing well for Belgium. It wasn’t working out. But, yo — come on. I was 17! 18! 19! When things were going well, I was reading newspapers articles and they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker. When things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent. If you don’t like the way I play, that’s fine. But I was born here. I grew up in Antwerp, and Liège and Brussels. I dreamed of playing for Anderlecht. I dreamed of being Vincent Kompany. I’ll start a sentence in French and finish it in Dutch, and I’ll throw in some Spanish or Portuguese or Lingala, depending on what neighborhood we’re in. I’m Belgian. We’re all Belgian. That’s what makes this country cool, right? I don’t know why some people in my own country want to see me fail. I really don’t. When I went to Chelsea and I wasn’t playing, I heard them laughing at me. When I got loaned out to West Brom, I heard them laughing at me. But it’s cool. Those people weren’t with me when we were pouring water in our cereal. If you weren’t with me when I had nothing, then you can’t really understand me. You know what’s funny? I missed 10 years of Champions League football when I was a kid. We never could afford it. I would come into school and all the kids would be talking about the final, and I’d have no idea what happened. I remember back in 2002, when Madrid played Leverkusen, everybody was like, “The volley! Oh my God, the volley!” I had to pretend like I knew what they were talking about. Two weeks later, we were sitting in computer class, and one of my friends downloaded the video off the Internet, and I finally saw Zidane smash it into the top corner with his left. That summer, I went over to his house so I could watch Ronaldo Fenomeno in the World Cup Final. Everything else from that tournament is just a story I heard from the kids at school. Ha! I remember I had holes in my shoes in 2002. Big holes. Twelve years later, I was playing in the World Cup. Now I’m about to play in another World Cup, and my brother is playing with me this time. Two kids from the same house, the same situation, who made it out. You know what? I’m going to remember to have fun this time. Life is too short for the stress and the drama. People can say whatever they want about our team, and about me. https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/0a71d26c-usatsi_7975485.jpg?width=1000 Man, listen — when we were kids, we couldn’t even afford to watch Thierry Henry on Match of the Day! Now we’re learning from him every day with the national team. I’m standing with the legend, in the flesh, and he’s telling me all about how to run into space like he used to do. Thierry might be the only guy in the world who watches more football than me. We debate everything. We’re sitting around and having debates about German second division football. I’m like, “Thierry, have you seen the Fortuna Düsseldorf setup, though?” He’s like, “Don’t be silly. Yes, of course.” That’s the coolest thing in the world, to me. I just really, really wish my grandad was around to witness this. I’m not talking about the Premier League. Not Manchester United. Not the Champions League. Not the World Cups. That’s not what I mean. I just wish he was around to see the life we have now. I wish I could have one more phone call with him, and I could let him know … “See? I told you. Your daughter is OK. No more rats in the apartment. No more sleeping on the floor. No more stress. We’re good now. We’re good … … They don’t have to check the I.D. any more. They know our name.” https://storage.googleapis.com/www-theplayerstribune-com/uploads/f53b686b-romelu-lukaku-signature-black1.png Romelu Lukaku BELGIUM 15 Likes 3 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 2:49pm On Jun 18, 2018 |
I have been debating if I should share Lukaku's story here, just like I shared Leon's. His is also incredible. But I fear I would be derailing the thread. Let me know if you want it. 5 Likes |
| Investment › Re: Treasury Bills In Nigeria by joseph1013: 10:11am On Jun 18, 2018 |
awesomeJ:Is there any thread I can get more information about Eurobond? I'm interested. |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 7:32am On Jun 18, 2018 |
THE WITCH AND THE SUPER EAGLES by Leon Balogun My sister’s best friend’s mom had a best friend, and she was the witch. She could read auras, or some crazy nonsense like that. I was 19 years old when I was told about her. I was trying to become a professional soccer player in Berlin — I didn’t have time for nonsense. But I had this issue … I was injury prone. Every year I felt like I would take one step forward and two steps back in my career because of the injuries. My sister, who is 13 years older than me and also my best friend, had an idea: The witch. Maybe witch is a bad term. I’m not sure. But she was a little spooky. When my sister first pitched me the idea, I sort of rolled my eyes, like, Yeah … I’m sure she’ll know what’s wrong with me. “No, Leon,” she’d say to me, “She sees things.” “Fine, fine. Let’s give it a try.” Let’s meet the witch. She was a middle-aged Russian woman. She didn’t look like much of a witch, or an oracle for that matter. Her eyes walked up and down me as soon as I entered the room. My eyes darted around. She started to talk to me and my sister. It was about nothing in particular really, but I think she was studying me — my energy. Her first diagnosis was that there was an hole in my aura. I was like, Alright, well, anybody could have guessed that. She said, “It’s on your right side.” “The hole in my aura?” “Yes.” That’s where I had a scar from a bad right-shoulder injury. She had no idea about it, and she had never seen me with a shirt off … she just, felt it, I guess. Now she had my attention. Then — and I’ll never forget this — she really blew me away. “Four or five years ago, you lost a person very close to you, but someone who you didn’t completely know, either.” I don’t think I said anything. She went on about how all people have someone like this in their lives, whether they know them or not. Someone who, no matter the strength of your connection, you will feel connected to — your soulmate, in a way. She said, “Is this true, Leon?” “Yes, my grandma.” https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/649ed230-d8357ae4-328f-45e1-819a-b0db084e9967.jpg?width=1000 I was amazed. I hadn’t thought about my grandma that much since she passed when I was 16 years old. But, this lady was right. My grandma’s death had a huge effect on me, and I had never even met my grandma, who lived in Nigeria. That’s the part that was wild to me. My sister didn’t know anything about my reaction to grandma’s passing. This woman, though, she saw it. She told me I had to heal my soul, my heart, before I could become the player I wanted to be. After we left, I didn’t completely understand if my experience with her was successful. The most important thing that came out of that day was that it got me thinking about my grandma. When I got home, my mind went straight back to the day my dad told me the news. Because I had never met her, my dad didn’t tell me right when it happened. He actually waited a few days — that’s how distant my relationship was from her. She only spoke Yoruba. So when we talked on the phone when I was little, my dad would try to translate for us. He had never taken me to Nigeria, for reasons he didn’t make clear to me, and I only ever saw photos of my grandma. When my dad told me, he pulled me aside in our home. I have this vivid memory of the feeling — like, this terrible, terrible feeling of sadness. I crawled up the stairs, sobbing my eyes out. I cried for an hour. My mom had to come to my room and ask me what was wrong … she couldn’t understand why I was so sad, either. I think, what I knew at a young age was that my grandma represented a part of my life that I didn’t completely understand. I was mixed race. My mom was a German, my dad Nigerian. I was different than the other kids. And I knew that my grandma, and Nigeria, had a lot do with it. I now wanted to understand more about that part of my life. And because of a witch, I knew how important that part of me truly was. My dad used to walk three miles every day before school when he was growing up in Nigeria. I knew this because he never let me forget it. It was one of a handful of stories he would tell me about his childhood. He moved to Germany in 1966, learned the language, got his diploma and met my mother. He was the blueprint for immigrants. He made it sound easy — being a foreigner who looked different — but I knew it wasn’t. Because even though Germany is a progressive country, there is that group of people, especially in sport, who still lurk around waiting to knock you down if you’re different. I met one of them when I was playing U-16 in Berlin, in 2003. I had given up on my dreams of being Thierry Henry or Ronaldinho, so I was playing at center back. The other team had this huge striker. He was bad news. I played really well, and I kept him in my pocket. We were up 1–0 at halftime, and as I was walking to the locker room, the striker kicked the ball at my head. It missed me by about an inch. Woosh. I turned, and he was yelling at me. He was calling me the n-word, using other racial slurs. Nobody did anything. There were people all around us, and nobody did anything. After the game, while we were still at the park, I told my dad about him kicking the ball at me. “Leon, you must always be calm. You’re smarter than they are. You’re better than they are.” Then I told him what the boy said to me. And that, for the first time in my life, was when I saw my dad lose his cool. He had this look on his face. I told him I wanted to go home because Mom said she was making a nice dinner. “No, we have to fix something.” https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/cfa66c8b-72bf6182-c4ba-4886-86d6-ca82342296f3.jpg?width=1000 So we waited in the parking lot for the boy to come out with his parents. They did. And my dad let them have it. “Hey, how can you raise your kid like this? Do you know what he said to my boy? We all come here to play football, and you lost, and that’s the game. But your son is 15 — he’s 15! — and he acts like this. I hope that you can one day fill his heart with love, instead of hate.” Their back-and-forth went on for awhile, and the other parents weren’t very nice. But I will remember what my dad said forever: Love, instead of hate. He was very upset in that moment, but he used empathy over rage. And I began to understand, little by little, how he made being an immigrant look so easy. I think because my dad worked so hard to integrate into society in Germany, it gave me the opportunity to do the opposite and connect with my Nigerian roots. I never supported the German national team, mostly because I thought they were arrogant and their football was boring to watch. Even in 2006, when Germany hosted and the whole country had World Cup mania — I secretly cheered for them to lose. Because I was a kid, and I was rebellious. And because, even though I felt in my mind that I was just as German as all the other kids, a lot of people didn’t see me like that. I was always asked, “Where are you from?” Or, “How long have have you been here?” I would think to myself sometimes, Maybe I was meant to be Nigerian. Even after I overcame some of the injury issues I had as a teenager and began playing regular minutes in the 2. Bundesliga and Bundesliga, that thing — the part of my soul that I had been told to heal all those years ago — was still missing from my life. In 2014, I was coming to the end of my contract with Fortuna Dusseldorf. I wasn’t sure where I would go next. There was uncertainty in my life, and from time to time I would think of the witch. What did she mean, “heal my soul?” One night in March, my phone rang. It was a Nigerian number … it was Stephen Keshi, the Nigerian National Team manager. I was sweating as soon as he introduced himself. I wanted him to say the words I had thought about for so long. He spoke for awhile about how he wasn’t totally familiar with me, but he liked how I played. Then he said it: “I would like to invite you to be a Super Eagle.” Those words … they meant so much to me. It meant validation for every step of my footballing journey. It meant happiness for my family. Most of all, it meant an opportunity to go to Nigeria. And that … that was everything to me. https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/49bba59f-balogun_quote-card.jpg?width=1000 When I told my dad the news, he was skeptical. “Are you sure it was the coach?” he said. And he had a point. I don’t want to speak poorly about the people of Nigeria, but there are some that are real scam artists. They spoil our name. I think that was a part of why my dad never took me back there. “Yes, Dad, it was the coach. I even listened to his voice on YouTube right after to make sure it was him!” He warned me about some of the things I could encounter in Nigeria. It wasn’t quite the celebratory phone call I had played out in my head, but that was my dad, always preparing me. But he was proud, I could hear that in his voice. I knew, as much as I understood about myself, about my father, I would learn even more on this trip. My first impression of Nigeria was probably same as that of any person who has lived in Germany his whole life: Man, it’s hot — heat like I’ve never experienced. I flew down with Anthony Ujah, a striker playing for Koln at the time. He helped me prepare for the trip a bit, too. Tips on what to do, how to act, all that stuff. When we stepped off the plane — the craziest thing was that people knew who I was. Some smiled and asked for photos. I couldn’t believe it. Just as I knew that in Germany I would always be seen as black, I assumed that in Nigeria I’d be seen as another white guy on a business trip. But they knew me, they were happy for me. Maybe I was meant to be Nigerian. We landed in Abuja, the capital city. We were there for a few days before training started. When we drove to practice that first day, I was listening to music, headphones in. “Nobody Knows” by August Alsina was playing. I like that song because, as somebody with a little fame, people sometimes seem to forget that I go through things, too. As I was listening, I saw a boy on a skateboard on the street. He had a disability. He had to sit on the board and use his hands to get around — something you would never see in Germany. And I just started to cry. I think, because I had seen some of the poverty in the city — in this beautiful city, with wonderful people — that it just sort of put things into perspective for me. It made understand how fortunate I was to grow up in one of the world’s greatest countries, to have the family I did. It was a humbling few days, and that boy’s problems made mine seem so inconsequential. https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/5927726e-gettyimages-966588870.jpg?width=1000 It was a such an important trip for me, such a great trip. I felt a sense of … healing. I felt like I was connecting with a part of me that had been lost — or better yet, never truly found — a long time ago. I love Nigerian food; I love the culture. Everyone is always playing music, laughing … trying to have the best time. I felt at home. And I understood that I could have two homes. I want to make both of them proud in Russia at the World Cup. Because Germany gave me this opportunity to have success with Nigeria. It is my footballing heritage. I get that. But when I wear that Super Eagles kit … it feels so good. And when we beat Zambia in October 2017 to punch our ticket to Russia, it felt amazing. I remember the final whistle, our stadium in Uyo erupting. I fell to my knees in tears. John Obi Mikel, our captain, came up to me. “No, no, you don’t get to cry. You don’t get to cry. We’re going to Russia!” We’re going to Russia. It still feels surreal to say. I just can’t wait. I know when we get there and I hear the national anthem, I’ll feel that much closer to my family, to my two homes, to my grandma. And that, more than anything, is going to make the World Cup incredible. https://storage.googleapis.com/www-theplayerstribune-com/uploads/8b8afc99-leon-balogun-signature-black.png Leon Balogun NIGERIA Source: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/leon-balogun-nigeria?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=worldcup18&utm_term=Balogun 44 Likes 16 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 8:17am On Jun 17, 2018 |
Bolowolowo:You can't imagine the kind of confidence they will be going with. Croatia that they defeated to qualify first in the group for the World Cup defeated us. They drew with Argentina that has always defeated us in competitive matches. And they've been preparing for this tournament for the past 20 years. I saw this report from The Economist on their foresight concerning football, "Iceland, which has qualified despite having only 330,000 people and 100 full-time professionals, has trained over 600 coaches to work with grassroots clubs. Since 2000 it has built 154 miniature pitches with under-soil heating to give every child a chance to play under supervision." See ehn...let's just enjoy the World Cup. 4 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 10:34pm On Jun 16, 2018 |
I feel very sad for Pinnick though. He's done what no NFF President has been in our history. I can't help thinking that if our previous teams have had this kind of support we'd have gone far in our previous campaigns. Such a shame to subject such a dedicated administrator to this kind of sorrow. 16 Likes 2 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 10:09pm On Jun 16, 2018 |
You're neither threat nor contender. Yet, each time you qualify, we root for you. Because no matter what the head knows, patriotism is in the heart. 12 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 8:56pm On Jun 16, 2018 |
Tochex101:The problem is that we have not learnt from the friendly matches. Nothing at all. Iwobi does not work on the wings. The only time he's come to the middle, he's done well. Same way England scored that corner kick goal. We don't defend like a world cup team. If we don't revert to that 3 5 2 formation, we will not get out of that team. It's so bloody annoying. 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:25am On Jun 15, 2018 |
Saudi Arabia's record at the World Cup 1998- France 4-0 Saudi 2002- Germany 8-0 Saudi 2002- Ireland 3-0 Saudi 2006- Ukraine 4-0 Saudi 2018- Russia 5-0 Saudi It's not by Allah's power but adequate preparation. 11 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 1:22pm On Jun 14, 2018 |
I love it when Christians say God does not compel anyone to believe in him. Yet they simultaneously accept that people who do not believe in God will be tortured without mercy or end. What is it they don't understand about the word 'compel'? This is like saying a man who pointed a gun at you demanding your wallet did not compel you to give him your money! 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 1:21pm On Jun 14, 2018 |
Elparaiso: |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 8:17pm On Jun 13, 2018 |
tbaba1234:Replace 'always' with 'sometimes'. 2 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 8:13pm On Jun 13, 2018 |
Oasis007:I doubt anyone denies the brilliance of Siasia, the problem has always been corruption. These guys can sell their soul for filthy lucre. With all the glories that was to come, look at what Keshi did to his own legacy. 2 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 6:43pm On Jun 13, 2018 |
EEGA: 3 5 2 Kelechi and Iwobi to lead the line. Moses Mikel Ndidi Ogu/Etebo Tyrone Omeruo Ekong Balogun We're not scoring goals. Kelechi scores goals. We need him to play. It's a wonder that since we played the 3-5-2 against Argentina, we've not tried to use the same personnel against other teams. We have not been scoring goals. Those front two are especially important. They know how to score goals for the Super Eagles. Rohr has to maximize our strength. 9 Likes 1 Share |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 5:12pm On Jun 13, 2018 |
TheSuperNerd:We need to find a way to play Kelechi in our team. We're assured of scoring goals, that much is certain. It is the work of the coach to maximize a team's potential. Let's hope Rohr pull it off. 8 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:55am On Jun 13, 2018 |
MY BEST FRIEND THE SERIAL KILLER If you worship God and consider him to be your best friend, you should be aware that your best friend (if he exists) is a serial killer. I have written before about the death toll from God's own murderous acts and from the orders to kill he gave to others. Those deaths amount to around 25 million people. But some people say, I'm not being fair. I'm only taking one side of the story. What about the kind, loving things God did? What kind, loving things God did? Here is a challenge to you. Find me a SINGLE kind, loving thing God did. Just one. And don't say he sent his son to be a human sacrifice to himself (John 3:16), I can't count demanding a human sacrifice as a kind, loving act. And nor can you. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 7:28am On Jun 11, 2018 |
adoyi8:Interesting. Thanks for sharing. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:41pm On Jun 09, 2018 |
GOD'S MOST IMPORTANT JOB Do you know what God's most important job was? It wasn't the creation of the universe or the creation of logic or the laws of physics. It wasn't the creation of Earth or even the creation of humans. There was something FAR more important than all these things. Once God had created sentient beings his most important job was to save them from unnecessary suffering. Perhaps God shouldn't or couldn't save us from ALL suffering. After all, suffering helps us to learn and we may never truly appreciate joy if we never experience pain. No, I am NOT thinking about the everyday suffering that is a part of living and dying. I am thinking about the unbearable and unending suffering that God imagined, designed and engineered for us to experience after our deaths. God's most important job is to save us from the eternal suffering of hell. Honestly, that should not be a very demanding job, especially for a God who is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. It should be a piece of cake. With my extremely limited intellect, I can work out what is required. Everyone needs to: 1) Hear the story of Jesus. 2) Understand the consequences of not accepting Jesus as their saviour, and, 3) Be given sufficient evidence to be sure both (1) and (2) are true. How did God go about his most important task? He revealed himself to the small and unsophisticated tribes of Israel. These were his chosen people. God revealed himself by selecting a handful of prophets and speaking to them. He made a deal with them. God would help these tribes if they would agree to follow his laws and worship him (and no other gods). The Israelites were the ONLY people God revealed himself to. The writings of the prophets together with the exploits of the Israelites were compiled into a book known are the Torah which was written in the obscure language of Hebrew (now often known as the Old Testament of the Bible). Oddly, no-one mentioned hell in the Torah. It was as if God hadn't thought of it at that time, or hadn't thought about how people could be saved from it. A thousand years passed and no-one knew of God outside of a small area in the Middle East and no-one knew how to be saved. Finally, God impregnated a virgin who conceived a son. God's son became a preacher and was known as Jesus. Jesus was eventually executed, resurrected and rose to heaven. The story of Jesus was written in Greek in a series of books by mostly unknown authors. The books were edited, redacted, expanded and changed in thousands of ways over many years. A lot of such books were discarded entirely. Those retained were compiled into a volume known as the New Testament. Together, the Old and New Testaments formed the Bible. Finally, the New Testament revealed that most important message--how to be saved from hell. But our problems were not over. The New Testament seemed to give contradictory advice on how to be saved. So much so, that 2,000 years later there are some 38,000 denominations following the New Testament and one of the differences between denominations is exactly how to be saved. The New Testament was translated into dozens of languages. This allowed the message to reach more people but also added to confusion as translations introduced their own inconsistencies. The only evidence available to us that the Jesus story is true and we must be saved is found in the New Testament. The only evidence that God exists is found in the Bible. The Bible is filled with inconsistencies, fanciful stories and immorality so billions of people find it unconvincing as evidence for God. It is easy to read the Bible and see nothing to differentiate it from the scripture of many invented religions. So how well did God accomplish his most important job? There are seven billion people in the world. Fewer than one third of them profess to be Christians. Since only Christians have any hope of being saved (according to the New Testament), at best, more than 70% of us alive today will be tortured for eternity. It could be much more than that, for we cannot be sure what proportion of Christians have done what is necessary to be saved. Perhaps, only say, 10% of Christians will be saved, leaving 97% of humanity to be tortured. No one knows. Honestly, I could have done a better job than that given just a fraction of God's resources. Almost anyone could have. It is hard to explain God's dreadful and appalling performance at his most important job. Either, he really WANTS to torture us or the whole story is pure fiction--there is no God and no eternal torture. What do you think? 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:55am On Jun 07, 2018 |
TEN QUESTIONS EVERYONE SHOULD ASK 1 Why, after debating this for thousands of years, are we no closer to agreeing which god is real or even if there are any gods at all? 2 Why, over 500 years, has science continually ruled God out, but NEVER ruled him in? 3 Why do god believers use transparently invalid arguments to justify their beliefs? 4 Why is there not even one argument for a god that all fair-minded people can agree to? 5 Why does geography determine which god people worship and not something else, such as intelligence? 6 Why is it that less-well educated people are MORE likely to "know" God, and not less likely? 7 Why are the most prayerful countries the most deprived, and not the most successful? 8 Why do god believers indoctrinate their children instead of allowing them to decide for themselves once they've grown up? 9 Why are god believers so often certain about things they cannot possibly know are true, such as what happens after they die? 10 Why do god believers rely on faith, when faith cannot distinguish true ideas from untrue ones? 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 2:30pm On Jun 06, 2018 |
We've been increasingly poor in defending set pieces. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 6:44am On Jun 05, 2018 |
ATHEISTS MUST BE MAD Religious people frequently express bewildered incredulity that atheists could believe the universe and/or self-replicating organisms could have come into existence by pure chance. They regard this belief as madness or wilful ignorance. Or both. Well religious people, I have good news. You don't have to worry about the sanity of atheists after all because they do NOT believe the universe and/or self-replicating organisms came into being by pure random chance. Atheists (many of them, at least) say we should not believe anything until there is good confirmatory evidence. The origin of the universe and the origin of self-replicating organisms are both hard questions to study. They are hard because they occurred a long time ago (we weren't there!) and because the passage of time may have obliterated the best evidence. Stephen Hawking put this very well. He said it could be like a drunk searching for his keys under a lamp post: that may not be where he lost them, but it is the only place where he has light to find them. We can only consider the evidence we have and, right now, we do not have enough to arrive at a conclusion. So atheists do NOT believe the universe and/or self-replicating organisms came into being by pure chance. Atheists simply say we do not understand how these things happened. But less erudite believers (which, unfortunately, seems to be most of them) have an immediate retort. They say, if you don't believe God did these things you MUST believe it happened by accident. No, no, no! That is a false dichotomy. That is to assume there are only two options; either the believer's preferred god did it or it was random chance. But there are many possible natural explanations and many possible supernatural explanations. It is also possible that there are both natural and supernatural explanations that we are not yet aware of. In such situations, rational people keep an open mind and keep searching for more evidence. What no rational person should do is believe any earnest claim that my family's god; Fred, Brahma, Allah (or whatever) did it. Believing such unevidenced claims really is madness. 4 Likes 1 Share |
| TV/Movies › Re: Safari's Movie Reviews by joseph1013: 8:04am On Jun 04, 2018 |
TheSuperNerd: |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 10:11pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
AIG07:I remember vividly when tbaba was saying all these. Tyrone is a well-schooled footballer. 3 Likes |
| TV/Movies › Re: Safari's Movie Reviews by joseph1013: 9:49pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
safarigirl:I don't watch Nollyhood movies, but I might just give this a trial. LOve your reviews. Great stuff. 3 Likes |
| TV/Movies › Re: Safari's Movie Reviews by joseph1013: 9:48pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
safarigirl:I absolutely love this movie. It was incredible. 3 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 7:28pm On Jun 02, 2018*. Modified: 7:59pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
I don't like how we took our legs off the pedal when we were on the ascendancy in the second half. It could easily have been a draw, which would not be a bad score for a game played at the Wembley stadium. I would be quite surprised if Joel Obi makes the cut for Russia. He was piss poor in today's game. He's not been solid in all the games played so far. Onazi should not be starting our games. He's too erratic. He is chiefly the main reason we lost today's game. Rohr needs to do something about our slow start to games. It's been perpetual. We could have been 3 goals down in the first 20 minutes. Good teams will punish us if we keep this habit up. 7 Likes |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 3:23pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
goldfish80:If we succeed at the World Cup, Nike itself would invite us to the table to re-discuss terms. Saying we have been unfairly treated by them without understanding context is naive. 1 Like |
| Sports › Re: "The Super Eagles Thread: The Road To AFCON 2027, 2028 And 2030 World Cup by joseph1013: 3:21pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
mank1234:I think we are getting carried away. Nike too a gamble on the Eagles. We were at a low point and getting any kind of contract was tough at the time. If we didn't qualify, Nike would have lost a lot of money, yet they took a chance at us. Now, when it's time for them to reap some rewards, we cry about slave contracts. Too many don't understand how business works. 3 Likes |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 (of 184 pages)