Nigeria Content Online

Arsenal’s faint
hopes of winning the Premier League title, rekindled after Chelsea lost
on Saturday, were finally killed off when they conceded three late
goals to lose 3-2 at Wigan Athletic on Sunday.

Arsenal, with goals
from Theo Walcott and Mikael Silvestre, were coasting towards a 2-0
victory with 10 minutes left but crashed to a stunning defeat as goals
from Ben Watson, Titus Bramble and Charles N’Zogbia gave Wigan their
first league victory over Arsene Wenger’s side.

The result moved
Wigan on to 35 points, seven clear of Hull City, and virtually
guaranteed their Premier League survival for another season.

Arsenal, who would
have moved to within three points of leaders Chelsea with a win,
remained third on 71 points, six behind Chelsea and five behind
Manchester United with just three matches to play.

REUTERS

England

Aiyegbeni Yakubu
(Everton): He definitely knows how to hit the spotlight as that was
exactly what he did in a 12-minute substitute appearance last Saturday
at Ewood where the Super Eagles striker scored one against Blackburn
and set up Tim Cahill’s last-minute winner.

Mikel Arteta’s
fourth-minute penalty had been cancelled out by a spectacular 30-yard
drive midway through the second half by Steven Nzonzi’s before the
introduction of the Nigeria international in the 78th minute marked a
turnaround for the Toffees.

Yakubu put Everton
2-1 up with his first touch seconds after coming on and although Jason
Roberts lashed home an equaliser two minutes late,r Cahill converted
Yakubu’s cross from close range late on to hand the Liverpool based
side a deserved victory.

The win also kept
Everton in with a chance of a late bid for a European place, moving
them to within two points of sixth-placed Liverpool, who play West Ham
later today.

Saturday’s game was
the 33rd game of the season for the former Middlesbrough striker and
his 79th minute strike marked his sixth goal of the campaign.

The game also
marked a return to first team action for Yakubu’s compatriot Victor
Anichebe who had been out of the spotlight since he picked up a knock
on March 20 in his side’s 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers. Anichebe came
in as a second half substitute and it was the 8th game of the season
for the 21 year old (he will be 22 on April 22).

Also in action for
Everton, albeit for just a minute, was Super Eagles vice-captain Joseph
Yobo who made a 90th minute substitute appearance in place of Louis
Saha. It was also the case for Yobo three days earlier in Everton’s 2-2
draw against Aston Villa.

Dickson Etuhu
(Fulham): Combative Nigerian midfielder Etuhu was on for the entire
duration of the game as Fulham were forced to a goalless draw by
visiting Wolverhampton Wanderers at Craven Cottage. It was the 33rd
game of the season for the former Manchester City academy player in a
campaign that has seen him score twice for the Whites, the last of
which arrived on March 11 in the London based side’s 3-1 loss to
Juventus in the Europa League.

Nwankwo Kanu &
John Utaka (Portsmouth): Super Eagles captain Kanu last weekend made a
rare starting appearance for Portsmouth in their 2-1 home defeat to
Aston Villa at Fratton Park. Starting roles have been few and far in
between for the highly decorated Nigerian forward, but he will need
much more to impress potential suitors as Portsmouth gets set for life
in the English lower division next season following their relegation
from the Premier League. And with just a few games left until the end
of the season, Kanu’s chance to impress his would-be employers may
likely come at the World Cup; that is if he gets to make the Super
Eagles’ 23-man final squad list to South Africa 2010.

Equally in dire
need of playing time to impress potential suitors is Kanu’s compatriot
Utaka who featured from start to finish in the loss to Aston Villa. It
was Utaka’s 24th appearance of the campaign for Pompey but most of it
has been as a substitute. And his return of three goals won’t help the
cause of the Nigerian striker who reportedly earns around £80,000
weekly at the troubled English club.

John Obi Mikel
(Chelsea): Mikel made his 35th appearance of the season for Chelsea on
Saturday but it was a day the Nigerian midfielder would want to forget
in a hurry as he succumbed to a knock while his side slumped to a
potentially destructive defeat at the hands of city rivals Tottenham at
White Hart Lane. Mikel, along with his Chelsea buddies, started the
game with much hope but at the end of proceedings, they were defeated.
And with Manchester United right behind them on the league standings,
and with only three games to the end of the league season, any further
slip on the part of the Blues will see the title returning to Old
Trafford.

France

Taye Taiwo
(Olmpique Marseille): Taiwo shooting is a handful for opposing
goalkeepers from as far out as 30 yards. From 12 yards out, it is a
nightmare for goal minders, and that was exactly the case on Saturday
when the Lagos born defender scored from the penalty spot to hand
Marseille a 2-1 win over Boulogne as the former French champions
continued their impressive march to their first Ligue 1 title in over
16 years.

The Nigerian left
back came into the fray as a 69th minute replacement for Mammadou Niang
and went on to restore Marseille’s lead on the dot of 90 minutes to
maintain his side’s lead at the top of Ligue 1.

Mathieu Valbuena
gave Marseille the lead shortly before half-time, only for Jeremy
Blayac to equalise for the home side nine minutes from time. However,
the visitors snatched the win in the dying seconds of injury time when
Taiwo blasted home a penalty given against Yoann Lachor for handball.

Boulogne’s Nigerian
defender Olubayo Adefemi was nowhere to be found in the clash as he was
not fielded by the relegation-threatened outfit.

Germany

Chinedu Obasi
(Hoffenheim): Skillful Nigerian forward, Obasi was in action from the
start of his side’s Bundesliga tie against Borussia Dortmund but was
replaced midway through the second half as both sides settled for a 1-1
draw in the exciting tie.

It was the 19th
game of the season for Obasi who has found the back of the net five
times for the modest German club side. The last of his goals however
came in November in Hoffenheim’s 4-0 thumping of Cologne.

Obafemi Martins
(Wolfsburg): It is not for any ordinary reason that Edin Dzeko and
Grafite are the first choice strikers at Wolfsburg, and the deadly duo
proved it yet again last weekend when they each found the back of the
net for the German champions. But their goals weren’t enough to prevent
Wolfsburg from slumping to their 11th league defeat of the season.

Not even the introduction of Martins 20 minutes from the end could
prevent a home defeat for the Wolves. The game in itself was only the
15th league game of the season for Martins who has only scored six
times since his summer switch from Newcastle United.

Super Eagles coach,
Lars Lagerback has called up a total of 44 players ahead of the
national team’s scheduled pre-World Cup training camp scheduled to come
up at a yet to be disclosed location in the United Kinigdom between
April 27 and 28.

There were really
no surprises in the list made public by the Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) on Sunday as the Swede kept faith with the core of the players
that have appeared for the national team over the past couple of years.
There was however a recall to the Super Eagles for Portsmouth’s John
Utaka who was left out of the national team by the team’s erstwhile
handler Shaibu Amodu.

There was also a
recall to the Super Eagles for the duo of Rabiu Afolabi and Onyekachi
Okonkwo who haven’t featured for the side since 2008.

Unheralded Nigerian
defender Michael Odibe, who is on loan at Italian side Siena, France
based Brown Ideye, as well as Denmark based Peter Utaka were also
considered worthy of staking a claim for a World Cup shirt by the
Swedish born coach of the Super Eagles.

Return of the home boys

Lagerback, in line
with calls from Nigerians for the inclusion of players from the
domestic league in the Super Eagles, also invited as many as six
players from the Nigerian top flight division to the UK camp which will
also serve as an avenue for him to hold discussions with Super Eagles
players and intimate them of his plans for the national team ahead of
the World Cup.

They are goalkeeper
Bassey Akpan of Bayelsa United, Terna Suswan of Lobi Stars, Gabriel
Reuben of Enyimba, Heartland’s Bartholomew Ibenegbu, Solomon Okpako of
Kano Pillars, and his club mate and leading scorer in the Nigerian
Premier League Ahmed Musa.

There was however no place in the team for Heartland’s Thankgod Ike
who many rate as the best central defender in the domestic league.
There was also no place in the team for promising midfielder Rabiu
Ibrahim, although his situation is understandable considering his lack
of top flight action. His former Golden Eaglets and Flying Eagles
buddy, Lukman Haruna however made the list and he will be hoping to do
enough to impress the Super Eagles handler and accomplish his dream of
featuring at the World Cup.

The Super Eagles team B yesterday won the maiden edition of the West African Football Union (WAFU) Championship, defeating their Senegalese counterparts by two goals to none.

Massive support

The finals played at the 35,000 seater capacity Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta was full to the brim by spectators who came to watch their home based team.

Super Eagles’ first goal was recorded by shirt number 14, Reuben Gabriel following a free kick from the left flank of the field by Bartholomew Ibenegbu which he headed into the net in the 62nd minute, leaving the Senegalese goalkeeper, Khadinj Ndiaye wondering.

The second and final goal which sealed the Super Eagles victory was scored in the 86th minute of the encounter by captain, Solomon Okpako.

The spectators which included the Flamingoes (women’s U-17 national team), were in a joyous mood due to the Super Eagles victory.

Winning all the way

It will be recalled that the Nigerian team played four matches against Benin, Guinea, Senegal and Burkina Faso, which they won before getting to the finals of the competition.

Several number of spectators who spoke with NEXT after the match expressed satisfaction over the performance of the national team.

Meanwhile, the third place match which was played earlier was won by Ghana, defeating their Burkina Faso counterparts by one goal.

Monday Odigie is
ready to change the course of history as he seeks to produce the next
Golden Eaglets that will truly form the nucleus of a future Super
Eagles.

The Eaglets boasts
an impressive pedigree of three World Cup titles and three silver
medals in the FIFA U-17 competition, the 13th edition which was held in
Nigeria last month, but our efforts have been overshadowed by perennial
tales of deceits and cheat.

Allegations of age
falsification or the use of beyond the stipulated age limit have often
trailed our U-17 team, such that a lot of soccer fans in the country
have found it difficult to celebrate the Eaglets’ success with
suspicions that the feat might have been achieved through foul play
rather than in the spirit of fair play.

Nigeria has paraded
a total of 162 players in the nine editions the country has featured in
the competition, but only eight of those players have been able to play
at the

senior World Cup level. Famous among them are Nwankwo Kanu, Celestine Babayaro, Victor Ikpeba and Wilson Oruma.

But following his
experience after working as assistant coach in the 2009 Eaglets squad,
the new U-17 handler, Odigie claims he is ready to right the wrongs and
build a strong legacy that will turn around the future of our football.
He agrees the age issue has been a challenge that is depriving Nigerian
football of its true development and that he is not afraid to fail with
his experiment.

Change

“How many times
have we actually won the competition? I tell you something; the fact
that you have the best 18 players does not guarantee you are going to
win a competition. So one needs to be bold to take your decision and be
ready to face the consequences in honesty to the ethics of the job. As
long as the authorities see the team is in the right direction, I’m
sure they will give me their support”, says Odigie in an interview with
NEXT.

“What is important
is bringing together a credible team, instilling the discipline and the
right tactics on the players. That’s how you get your results, not by
size or age. It is also important to put a programme in place that will
get the young players exposed to supposedly bigger opponents. “They
could get defeated in those games but they will learn from it and you
carry on with the players with the hope of expecting them to improve.
You don’t have to fear, you are not going to deliver because fear is
even a phenomenon in life and no matter how high you go in your
endeavour, it will always be there. So you just have to do your job”,
Odigie said of his aspirations.

Stars fail to shine

The last time
Nigeria won the U-17 World Cup was 2007 in South Korea, but none of the
glory boys have come of age. Talented playmaker Rabiu Ibrahim is yet to
make senior grade at Sporting Club of Portugal while the tournament’s
golden shoe and silver ball winner, Macauley Chrisantus has had to be
loaned from his Bundesliga side, Hamburg, to Karlsruhe in the lower
division. By contrast, Mexico are relying on the nucleus of their 2005
U-17 world champions including Arsenal’s Carlos Vela and Giovani Dos
Santos to prosecute their 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In fact the
young boys have been branded the “Golden Generation” by the Mexican
media to underline their admiration for their development in the game.

“Three years down
the line the boys have not even been able to make any impact in terms
of development. So that’s part of the problem. If you get a truly young
side, you will be able to see some positives in terms of development
because they keep growing. Everyone has an opportunity, and people will
make reference to what you achieve”, Odigie lamented on how our U-17
champions have faded away.

Toughest

The former Bendel
Insurance of Benin defender who guided Bayelsa United to the Nigeria
Premier League title last season regards the Eaglets job as the
toughest portfolio of all the national teams’ coaching jobs.

“I think it is the
most challenging job of all the national teams because the essence is
to bring these boys together in their raw state, give them the right
orientation on how to play such that they will be able to translate the
knowledge into winning games in championship because winning gives them
the opportunity of a good future. This stage is supposed to be the
foundation of the future of national team, so it is no doubt the most
challenging of them all.

“The way we are looking at it is to involve people who are truly
involved in bringing up young talents such as credible academies and
explore school competitions like the Principals’ Cup to get the kind of
talents that can fit into our plans,” he said.

Where there is
life, there is hope it is often said; however, as the 2010 World Cup
taking place in South Africa draws inexorably closer, there is nothing
about our Super Eagles to inspire any hope of a successful outing at
the mundial. This much, available evidence has made bare.

Captain and
assistant captain of the Eagles team, Kanu Nwankwo and Joseph Yobo are
perpetual bench warmers at their respective clubs in Portsmouth and
Everton. Put in lay man’s language, they are not playing for their
clubs and these are the players Nigeria is going to be depending upon
for ‘successful’ performance at the tournament.

No starting eleven

Of the probable
line-up of the Eagles against Argentina on June 12, only the
goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama and the midfield duo of Mikel Obi for
Chelsea and Dickson Etuhu for Fulham play consistently for their clubs.
All the other players are either bit part players or are injured. Where
does that leave the target of the semi-finals that the Nigeria Football
Federation is harping about?

From the defence to
the forward line, the team is lacking in players that are in prime
action for their clubs and we are not talking about 10 minute cameos
here.

Defence

The supposed
fulcrum of this department, Joseph Yobo is into cameo appearances for
Everton. His place has been taken by Phil Jagielka – a defender
considered not good enough for England’s national team. His partner is
32 year old Sylvain Distin. Yobo seems to have lost importance in this
team. He says it is because he went to represent Nigeria at the Nations
Cup but this may be begging the issue as no right thinking coach will
leave a player of quality on the bench.

Danny Shittu’s case
is especially pathetic and if he makes Nigeria’s team to the World Cup
then Lionel Messi and company may be licking their lips in anticipation
of a rout. Shittu has not played for his club this season and does not
even get on the substitutes’ bench.

Taye Taiwo aside, all the defenders are either not playing at all or are finding it hard to get games.

Elderson Echiejile has not played for Rennes this season even though he has been on the bench 20 times.

“We want to play
all the time but it is not in our hands. Players always do their best
to get into the first team but it is the coach who decides who gets to
play and who doesn’t,” says Echiejile who has regularly appeared for
the Super Eagles but is yet to make a league appearance for Rennes this
season following the departure of his mentor Guy Lacombe at the start
of the season.

Echiejile’s overall
performance at the last Africa Cup of Nations in Angola however
rubbishes the popular belief that only players who feature regularly
for their clubs play well at the international level as he started
ahead of regular left-back Taiwo in four out of the six matches played
by the Super Eagles in the tournament.

“I did well in
Angola because I train regularly with the first team,” continued
Echiejile, before adding: “I also arrived early to camp and did
everything the coaches told me to do, and that is what I will be doing
all over again if I get called to camp for the World Cup.”

Onyekachi Apam has
been consistent for Nice in the Ligue 1 likewise his Beijing team mate
– Dele Adeleye for Sparta Rotterdam in Holland. Obinna Nwaneri is back
on the local scene with Heartland of Owerri. Chidi Odiah seems to have
gone cold with his displays for CSKA Moscow so in Nigerian parlance –
we will be using angels to guard our goalkeeper.

The middle may hold

The midfield is
the engine room of any team and plays a crucial role in its success.
For the Eagles, it is one department where Nigerian players are getting
enough playing time for their clubs. Leading the pack is Mikel, who has
been turning out regularly for Chelsea in the Premier League and other
competitions.

Another player
enjoying consistency of play is Fulham’s Dickson Etuhu. The player has
been in good form for Fulham and scored a goal in their 3-1 defeat of
Italian club, Juventus in the Europa Cup two weeks ago. Etuhu is upbeat
about the Eagles chances and does not think the inability of some of
his team mates to enjoy regular club action, will be a drawback:

“All they need is two or three weeks of training before the World Cup and we will have a good team.

It really has been
a long campaign and I think it could be to the advantage of some of the
guys who haven’t had so many games under their belt this season. They
may be match rusty but they will be in great physical condition,” said
Etuhu.

Etuhu has a right
to be optimistic, the question remains that if players are not match
fit, how then will they prosecute matches when the mundial starts on
June 12 especially as there does not appear to be the likelihood that
there will be enough tune up matches for the team?

Wet gunpowder

The most lethal
Nigerian scorer outside the shores of Nigeria is Peter Utaka, who plays
for OB Odense of Denmark but has only appeared once for the Super
Eagles in an “inconsequential” friendly match against DR Congo last
February in Abuja. Yet he has notched up an impressive 24 goals for his
modest club in 33 matches.

The Denmark based
Utaka aside, Eagles strikers have not really been at their scoring best
this season and in the past couple of months. Aiyegbeni Yakubu, usually
dependable in front of the opposition’s goal, has only been able to
score five times for English side, Everton while the Portsmouth duo of
Nwankwo Kanu and John Utaka have only grabbed four and three goals
respectively for the beleaguered Premier League side.

Chinedu Obasi of
German Bundesliga side Hoffenheim, has six goals to his credit this
season, same as Wolfsburg’s Obafemi Martins while Obinna Nsofor, who is
out on loan at Spanish Primera Liga outfit Malaga, has found the back
of the net just three times.

Osaze Odemwingie
hasn’t fared better in the colours of his Russian Premier League side
Lokomotiv Moscow and Ikechukwu Uche is still a couple of weeks away
from making a competitive return to football following a career
threatening injury he suffered last September while playing for his
club, Zaragoza in the Spanish La Liga.

In fact, the only
overseas based Super Eagles strikers to have reached double digits this
season are Tunisia based Michael Eneramo, who scored his 14th goal of
the season last Wednesday in Esperance’s 3-1 victory over Kairounaise,
and Joseph Akpala, who has hit ten goals in all competitions this
season for his Belgian club, Club Brugge.

This is in stark
contrast to the scoring rate of some of the strikers Super Eagles’
first round opponents will be parading when hostilities get underway in
South Africa. Greek forward Theofanis Gekas, who finished as the
leading scorer in the European section of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers
with 10 goals and who in the recent past has finished as top scorer in
both the Greek and German top divisions, recently scored his 13th goal
of the season when he netted a hat trick in Hertha Berlin’s 5-1
annihilation of Wolfsburg. For the South Koreans, 24-year old Park
Chu-Young of Monaco is finding his scoring touch at just about the
right time and is presently the French Ligue 1 side’s second leading
scorer, while Argentine forwards Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio
Aguero and Lionel Messi, amongst others, have been finding the back of
the oppositions net with considerable ease these past couple of months.

“It is not that we
the strikers have not been doing everything possible to score regularly
but sometimes one needs a great deal of luck to do that,” said Akpala
in a telephone interview with NEXTSports from his base in Belgium.
“Take me as an example, last season I scored 16 times while this time
around I have only 10 goals but with more assists.

“Messi, Gekas and
all the other strikers we will be up against at the World Cup may be
scoring now but there is a possibility that the case will be different
by the time the World Cup begins because even the best strikers in the
world still need the help of their team mates in order to do well. Even
the best players can appear ordinary in a bad team,” he added.

Having great
players doesn’t necessarily translate into a great national team but a
major snag for the Super Eagles is that a great deal of the team’s
established stars, if not all of them, are not playing regularly for
their clubs. In fact, only the likes of John Obi Mikel, Taye Taiwo and
Dickson Etuhu, as well as a few others play week in, week out for their
clubs.

The Super Eagles
will definitely train for a couple of weeks before the commencement of
the World Cup and it is during this period that Lars Lagerback is
expected to make known his final squad for the World Cup.

Blessing in disguise

Despite the present predicament of Eagles players, Akpala believes there may be a silver lining behind the darkening clouds:

“The season has
been very long for some of us. We played all through last season and
didn’t have enough rest before the start of this season. It’s going to
be the same scenario all over again because their won’t be any break
before the World Cup so only players who haven’t played so much for
their clubs will be in top shape for the tournament,” he said.

Nigerian football
fans can only hope that our players that have not been scoring
regularly for their clubs will discover their scoring touch when
Nigeria faces Argentina in our first match on June 12.

Thankfully, the
three goal keepers that are likely to feature in South Africa are based
in Israel and are in action every weekend. Enyeama was voted the best
player of the season last season and he showed in Angola during the
Nations Cup that in him we have a reliable shot stopper.

How easy it is to
forget that sports players at their peak are, by the very nature of
their task, young but expected to be wise in their event,
world-travelled but isolated and vulnerable.

This week, Emmanuel
Adebayor, the goal scorer for Manchester City, gave up the captaincy
and the calling to play ever again, he says, for his country, Togo. He
is 26 and a millionaire, and he says he just cannot get out of his head
the day in January when Angolan separatists fired on the Togo team bus,
killing three people in it.

Just footballers

“We were just
footballers going to play a football match and represent our country,”
Adebayor said in a prepared statement. “Yet we were attacked by people
who wanted to kill us all. It is a moment I will never forget, and one
I never want to experience again.” Whether he knew it or not,

Adebayor’s
abandonment of his national team coincided with an explicit threat by a
group allied to Al Qaeda that it plans to attack players and spectators
at the United States-England match in South Africa on June 12.

“Al Qaeda will have
a presence in the games,” read the statement on a Jihadi Web site,
Mushtaqun Lel Jannah, based in Algeria. “How amazing could the match
United States vs Britain be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium
packed with spectators when the sound of an explosion rumbles through
the stands, the whole stadium is turned upside down and the number of
dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds, Allah willing.” What
happened to the Togolese team in January, and to Israeli athletes at
the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, and last year to cricketers in Pakistan,
means that any or all threats to sports has to be taken seriously.

Interpol is already
on the case ahead of the World Cup in South Africa. U.S. State
Department officials speak of “appropriate precautions” for its
citizens at the tournament. British intelligence sources offer no
comment, but they are aware of the deadly consequences after the
kidnapping and execution of a Briton, Edwin Dyer, by Islamic militants
in Mali in June.

Never again

Italy, France and
Germany were also named in the Al Qaeda warning over the weekend.
Franco Frattini, the foreign minister of Italy, chose an equally modern
method of communication, his Facebook page, to respond: “The world
wouldn’t tolerate another Munich.” Now, as at Munich 38 summers ago,
sports officials insist their show must go on.

“It does not mean
that because we receive a threat, the World Cup should not be allowed
to be contested in South Africa, or any other country,” said Jerome
Valcke, the secretary general of soccer’s global authority, FIFA, told
journalists in Johannesburg.

“We have freedom in
the world to celebrate what we want. As the management of the
organisation that governs world football, we know there is a threat. We
will not stop the organisation of the World Cup because we got the
threat.” And, since terror is words as well as bombs or bullets, we can
expect more of this crossfire of rhetoric as the global focus on South
Africa intensifies.

Meanwhile, for some
the preparation has already begun. On the day that Adebayor issued his
statement in Manchester, a group of Mexican players became the first
participants to go into training camp for this World Cup.

Adebayor’s
withdrawal is no doubt chastened by his stated anger that not only did
the security forces fail to protect his team in an area where
separatists were known to pose a threat, but the African soccer
confederation subsequently banned Togo from the next two African
Nations Cups.

The officials still
stick to the line that the show must go on, even when a team is
traumatized and taken home at the order of its own head of state for
safekeeping and mourning.

Maybe, one day,
African soccer will stop vilifying a group of talented young men whose
only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe, if that day
arrives, Adebayor will return to the fold. He is a volatile and
impressionable young man who had leadership thrust upon him by virtue
of being his country’s most visible celebrity.

What does he know,
what can an athlete living in the cocoon of being paid a hundred times
what he might earn in his own country, know about the real world?

Old custom

The isolation of
Mexico’s players, called into camp 60 days before their tournament
begins in South Africa, echoes an old Brazilian custom. It dates back
to the 1950s, when the 17-year-old-Pele was among those called into the
“concentration” of Brazil’s soon-to-be World champions.

The Brazil squad
would travel to Teresopolis, a mountain retreat above Rio de Janeiro.
They ate, slept, lived their game and their bond. And if the coaches,
physios and psychologists could not provide everything youth required,
one head coach had rules concerning access to the opposite sex.

Joao Saldanha, who
built the 1970 Brazil World Cup squad, once told me he had “many
bandits” in his team, and if he forbade them women, they would scale
the walls to get out.

His solution was to
tell players they could sleep with who they wanted, but should never
change the partner more than once a week. When, one day, the camp
commandant informed him that a player had broken the rule, Saldanha
went to the room.

“The girl was very
beautiful,” said the coach, smiling. “I had no choice. I confiscated
her!” Saldanha, a journalist as well as coach, was a fine story teller.

Javier Aguirre,
Mexico’s coach, has 17 players in camp. Others, on duty with clubs
abroad, will join when their seasons in Europe and elsewhere permit it.

Aguirre said on
Monday that he believed that he had the finest group of young Mexicans
ever. His task is to improve the collective mentality, to devise the
tactics and, for the next 60 days, the lifestyle.

“I asked the
players ‘Guys, do you want to make history? It’s going to cost, the
sacrifice is hard, and it’s difficult to leave your families to be here
for 60 days.’” He did not say whether the security at the gates was to
keep the media out, or the players in.

Hughes wrote for the New York Times News Service

Arsenal take dwindling hopes to struggling Wigan.

At the DW Stadium
today, struggling Wigan will attempt to take some vital points from
Arsenal and finally destroy the London side’s chances of claiming a
first league title in five years. The encounter will also bring
together two managers with similar footballing philosophies, but whose
sides currently inhabit different ends of the Premier League table.

Roberto Martinez’s
Wigan have managed just one win in their last six league games and now
find themselves just a few points clear of the relegation zone. But
that is only because the Latics have been terrible, to say the least,
in front of goal. Indeed, Wigan have scored just four times in their
last ten league games.

In contrast,
Arsenal have averaged more than a goal per game in their last 12 league
matches with Nicklas Bendtner scoring nine times in his last 11
appearances. And recent performances point to a bad day at the bank for
Wigan even though they are up against an Arsenal side that saw its
chances of ending the season as champions suffer a huge dent at the
hands of Tottenham.

Following the 2-1
loss at White Hart Lane on Wednesday, a result which killed their title
aspirations, Arsenal will be eager to get back to winning ways and put
that painful defeat behind them. And against a Wigan side that has
taken just one point from their past nine Premier League meetings
against the Gunners, that could just be the case at the end of the day.

But Arsenal have
kept only two clean sheets in their last 14 away matches, and that lack
of steel at the back will give Martinez’s side hope of snatching some
priceless points against the Gunners who will undoubtedly be buoyed by
the presence of Robin Van Persie who made a successful reintroduction
to the game in the loss at White Hart Lane.

“Van Persie hasn’t
kicked a ball for five months. You could see straight away he gave us
something different and something special,” said Wenger in the
aftermath of his team’s defeat last Wednesday.

But Van Persie’s
return is just a small part of it as Arsenal still have a whole lot of
injuries to contend with as Cesc Fabregas, Aaron Ramsay, William
Gallas, Johan Djourou, Kieran Gibbs and Thomas Vermaelen are all
sidelined while Cameroon international Alex Song and Russian ace Andrey
Arshavin are doubtful for the tie.

Pompey seeking to go off with a bang

The only other
Premier League tie scheduled for today will see recently relegated
Portsmouth taking on Aston Villa at Fratton Park.

Portsmouth have
endured a terrible season, both on and off the pitch, but irrespective
of their relegation to the English lower division, Avram Grant’s side
will still finish the season off in grand style, courtesy of an FA Cup
final appearance against Chelsea.

But they still have
to play out their league engagements before the May 15 final against
the Blues, and will be hoping to further dent the continental
aspirations of an Aston Villa side who have seen their form fade since
the turn of the year.

Indeed, the Villans
have drawn eight of their last 13 league matches while managing a
meagre win in five. But they do boast of a solid backline that has kept
six clean sheets in their last nine away matches.

It is the same case
scenario for Portsmouth whose recent form has also been poor as they
have failed to score in every one of their last four league games with
just a win to their credit in their last seven league games.

And it won’t be the
first time both sides will be meeting at Fratton Park this season as
they met last December in a Carling Cup quarter-final clash that ended
in a 4-2 win for Aston Villa. And there is every indication Pompey will
not fare any better in today’s game as they will face Villa without the
services of the injured duo of Danny Webber and Hermann Hreidarsson,
while Nadir Belhadj and Tal Ben Haim remain doubts.

Eight days after the West Africa Union (WAFU) Cup championships began in Ijebu Ode and Abeokuta in Ogun State, the two national teams that will play the final match will be determined today as the semi-final matches are played.

Four teams; Nigeria (host), Senegal, Ghana and Burkina Faso, are the countries left after Benin, Guinea, Togo and Liberia failed to make it out of the group stages. The Super Eagles “Team B” of Nigeria will hope to make it to the finals of the sub-regional event when they file out against Group B runner-ups, Burkina Faso.

The encounter should not be an uphill task for the Daniel Amokachi led team who have managed to score eleven goals in three games. To get into the semis, the Super Eagles drubbed the Squirrels of Benin 4-0, outscored the Syli Nationale of Guinea 5-0 and managed a 2-1 victory over the Lions of Teranga (Senegal).

Nigeria Premier League (NPL) leading goal scorer, Ahmed Musa, is confident the Super Eagles will play at the finals. The 20 year old maintained that Burkina Faso’s confidence may have been hampered by the 4-0 loss to Ghana in their last group match.

The striker said; “We will beat Burkina Faso today. I am not saying Burkina Faso will just sit back and let us walk over them, No! But we won our three matches, our confidence and the spirit in the team is okay. They (Burkina Faso) were defeated 4-0 by Ghana; I see no reason why we shouldn’t beat them.”

Hoping for Nigeria/Ghana final

After defeating the Stallions of Burkina Faso with an inspiring 4-0 in the final Group B match at the WAFU Nations Cup on Wednesday, the Ghanaian national team plan to keep their excellent run in the competition intact when they file out against Group A runner-up, Senegal in their semi-final encounter.

Ghana, one of the favourites to win this competition alongside Nigeria, have also been spectacular in this competition. The 2009 FIFA World Cup U-20 champions, a feat acquired with nine home-based players, have shown their winning skills by defeating both Togo and Liberia 2-0 and 3-0 respectively.

Already, Ghana’s boss, Herbert Addo, is hoping for a final clash between Ghana and Nigeria. The former Ghanaian international noted that winning the WAFU Cup at the expense of his West African neighbours would prove Ghana’s triumph at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt last year was not a fluke, “So far, the two teams have shown good character and it is only good that they meet to know who is better in the final game. Ghana and Nigeria are branded as brothers but when it comes to the pitch, it’s a different story. On Friday, I saw Nigeria demolish Benin and I have learnt one or two things.

“We are looking forward to meeting Nigeria if the chance comes because what I saw is a great challenge coming from the Nigerian team led by [Daniel] Amokachi who I have always admired even when he was a player.”

He is undoubtedly the best player in the world, not only by FIFA ranking but by the rankings of all football lovers worldwide. His name is Lionel Andrés Messi.

At just 22 years, the Argentine striker/winger is the current ballon d’or and FIFA world player of the year, and I don’t see him handing over the crown to anybody else in the nearest future.

It’s not surprising that he started playing for his first club Grandoli at the age of five.

His playing style and ability have drawn comparisons to football legend Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his “successor” which has also earned him the nickname “Messidona”.

Like Maradona, Messi was considered too small and had to be “pumped” up. His lack of growth though was caused by a hormonal deficiency in his bones. His love for Barcelona started at the age of 13, when Barcelona agreed to take care of his medical bills of over 500 pounds a month. Their foresight (both club and family) has proven to be a great investment.

In June 2005, he was the highest goal scorer with 6 goals and was voted player of the tournament, ahead of our own John Obi Mikel, in the under-20 World Cup, after his pair of penalties had secured a win in the final over Nigeria. It is very hard to believe that those two used to be in the same league as they are worlds apart now.

John Carlin rightly put it in describing him. “Messi is a creature as biologically adapted to play football as a shark is to smell blood, a salmon to swim upstream, a squirrel to gather nuts. In Leo Messi, the football world is united. I am yet to meet one person who has a different opinion of the guy.

It’s indeed an amazing story for someone who was/is physically challenged. It is actually worth getting on a pulpit and testifying about.

Making his debut in the 2004-05 season, he broke the La Liga record for the youngest footballer to play a league game, and also the youngest to score a league goal before his team-mate Bojan Krkic broke his record. It didn’t take too long for major titles to follow. Barcelona won La Liga in his debut season, and won the league and UEFA Champions League in 2006. In 2006-07 season he scored a hat-trick in El Clásico. His most successful season so far was the 2008-09 season, in which he scored 38 goals to play an important part in a treble-winning campaign.

He has continued to flourish match after match. We saw him in action against Arsenal in the quater-finals of the UEFA Champions league on Tuesday. He was simply awesome. He had no mercy on Mikel Silvestre and his team mates. It was a breath taking performance. He left the whole world salivating and looking forward to South Africa, maybe with the exception of Nigerians, South Koreans and the Greeks.

With his current form and his brilliance against Arsene Wenger’s side, he may well steal the headlines from Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Cesc Fabregas and other prodigies in South Africa this summer.

Even though he has Maradona’s style of play, with the flowing high-speed dribble, he has also been able to add some of Ronaldinho’s unpredictability, Eto’s cool finishing and Deco’s indefatigable playmaking.

It is also nice to note that off the pitch, he is nothing like Diego Maradona. He is a quiet and a shy person. I really don’t see him as one who would acquire the dangerous habits that sent his national team coach into rehabilitation several times.

He also seems to me like a man who will end his career at the Camp-Nou with a sell-on clause of about 150 million Euros, Barcelona might as well have put a “not-for sale” sign on his forehead.

To say Arsenal was beaten by Messi is putting it lightly, I will prefer to use the word annihilated. It was one match Arsenal fans were not sad about; instead they applauded the brilliance of the young man.

Going forward, it’s no longer news that Messi’s Argentina is in the same group as Nigeria in the World Cup. Even though he seems prone to injury, I don’t wish that on him. It will be an honour to watch him play live. Question though is: who will be given the task of marking Leo Messi who has become every defenders nightmare? Shittu, Yobo?

The likes of Mumuni Alao believe Nigeria has a chance against Argentina. He is of the opinion that Messi is not that fantastic when wearing the Argentinean shirt. We cannot bank on that in his current form. In my opinion, player for player I give it to Argentina. My only consolation is that we have a coach who is certainly more experienced, and hopefully it will be won by the experience of the coaches and not the skills of the players.