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Four teams have
booked their places in the semi-finals of the maiden Gulder Ultimate
Five-A-Side which gets underway today at the mobile Astro Turf, New
Gymnasium, National Stadium, Lagos.

The four teams are; Royal Eagles, 401 Road Planners, Royal FC of Aba and Talent Builders of Lagos Island.

In the first
semifinal match, Royal FC of Aba will try 401 Road Planners of Ajegunle
for size while Talent Builders of Island will take on Royal Eagles of
Warri, to determine the other team that will play in the final match
billed for tomorrow at the same venue.

To reach this stage
of the tournament, Royal FC of Aba secured a valuable 5-4 win over
Inter FC of Enugu and topped the group B while Talent Builders who had
an emphatic 4-0 win against Ikeja. All Stars of Ipaja came tops in
group A. The other semi-finalists were runners-up in their respective
groups.

The final match comes up tomorrow, with cash prizes up for grabs by deserved winners.

Popular Hip hop artiste, Timaya, will lead other entertainers to
thrill the expected crowd after the classification and the final
matches

The Super Eagles
became the first African team to arrive in South Africa for the World
Cup when they touched down in the Indian Ocean port city of Durban on
Wednesday morning.

Originally
scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, the Super Eagles had their departure
from London delayed by technical problems with their hired aircraft.
The Nigerian government however came to the team’s rescue by sending a
local carrier to fly the team to South Africa. The players and
officials finally landed in South Africa at 9:40am Nigerian time to a
rousing welcome at Durban’s new King Shaka International Airport, where
they will be based for the month-long tournament at the Protea Hotel
Waterfront in the town of Richards Bay, 160 kilometres north of Durban
which proclaims itself as the “warmest place to be for the World Cup.”

Fan support

Over 200
flag-waving, South Africa-based Nigerians, cheered and sang popular
Nigerian victory songs as the players filed out of the airport and into
their bus. In return, the players responded by waving at their
countrymen as the bus pulled out of the airport for the 90 minute drive
to Richard’s Bay.

Among those present
at the airport to welcome the two times former African champions were
the Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Buba Marwa, and the
Mayor of Richard’s Bay, Stan Larkan.

The team arrived
the Protea Hotel Waterfront at 1:30pm, and had lunch thirty minutes
later, before retiring to their rooms ahead of a dinner reception in
honour of the team by the Mayor of Richard’s Bay scheduled for
Wednesday night at the hotel.

Another dinner
reception, to be hosted by the Nigerian High Commission, is also billed
to come up on Sunday in Johannesburg when the Super Eagles travel there
for the international friendly against North Korea. The encounter
against the Asians will be the last international friendly for the
Super Eagles before their opening World Cup match against Argentina on
June 12.

They are scheduled
to fly into Johannesburg on Sunday morning, play the game against the
Koreans in the evening, and afterwards head off to the Nigerian
Consulate for the planned dinner reception before returning to
Richard’s Bay on Monday morning to continue their final preparations
for the World Cup where they have been drawn in Group B with Argentina,
South Korea and Greece.

The Super Eagles
will play their opening game of the tournament against Argentina on
June 12 in Johannesburg with Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan
expected to be present at the match venue – Ellis Park. Mr. Jonathan
will, a day earlier, be at the tournament’s opening ceremony scheduled
for Soccer City, also in Johannesburg.

The Super Eagles
will, following their game against the Argentines, take on Greece in
Bloemfontein on June 17 before coming up against South Korea in Durban
on June 22.

The quest to get
the Roland Garros trophy, and the number one ranking by Rafael Nadal
was boosted on the Phillipe Chartrier court on Wednesday. The 4-time
winner was taken through the grinder by Nicolas Almagro in three sets.
Nadal won 7-6 7-6 6-4 in a match that lasted almost three hours.

With the loss of
Roger Federer to Robin Soderling on Tuesday, the coast is clearer as
the Spaniard seeks to get back on top of the pile in the world ranking
that will be released after the French Open.

Almago had started
stunningly taking the first two games with ease. The crowd were stunned
and thought another champion was going to be sent tumbling out of
Paris. They shouldn’t have worried as Nadal drew on the famous recovery
powers to get back into the game. The number two seed clinched the
opening set on the tie-break, and Almagro was left frustrated as he
seemed to have enjoyed the better of the duel.

Ultimately,
Almago’s 44 unforced errors cancelled out his 43 winners. Nadal marches
on to meet Novak Djokovic in what will be an epic semi final match on
Friday.

Serena loses out

For once, the two
top seeds in the Woman’s game are no more in contention for the top
prize. Samantha Stosur surprised Serena Williams 6-2 6-7 (2-7) 8-6 on
the famous Philippe Chatrier Court Stosur had become the first woman in
six years to beat former champion, Justin Henin on Monday. She showed
all her fighting qualities to beat Serena. The world number one had led
5-4 in the third set and serving for the match at 40-30 but Stosur just
refused to go away winning the set 8-6.

The Australian held on to win in two hours and 24 minutes. She now
has a chance to make her first grand slam final when she faces fifth
seeded Jelena Jankovic, who advanced by beating Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5
6-4 in a see-saw match. Jankovic will hope tto claim a first French
Open with all the top seeds out. The Williams sisters are into the
finals of the doubles event where they are rated at number one.

Barcelona have made a formal offer to Arsenal to buy Spain midfielder, Cesc Fabregas.

“Yesterday
afternoon we presented a firm, written offer to Arsenal,” director
general Joan Oliver told the club’s website (www.fcbarcelona.com) on
Wednesday. “Everyone knows Cesc wants to play for Barca, and everyone
also knows we want to sign him, but there is a third party that is
Arsenal,” added Oliver without giving details of the offer.

The English team
will be reluctant to lose one of their most influential players.
Fabregas said last month he had spoken to manager Arsene Wenger about
what he wanted and had left it in his hands.

The player came
through the Barca youth ranks before moving to Arsenal at 16 but has
never made any secret of his desire to return to the Catalan giants at
some stage. Fabregas is in Austria where Spain are preparing for the
World Cup in South Africa which starts next week.

The 23-year-old is
recovering from a cracked bone in his right leg but could return after
two months out against South Korea in a warmup game in Innsbruck on
Thursday. Barca vice-president for sports, Rafael Yuste, said: “I am
hoping we can sign him as soon as possible. I am optimistic and it’s
clear he, his family, the players and everyone else would give him a
very warm welcome.”

Fabregas would become La Liga champions Barca’s second major signing
in the space of a few weeks after they landed Spain striker David Villa
from Valencia for 40 million euros last month.

The Gulder
Five-a-side football tournament took a dramatic turn yesterday with
highly rated 401 Road Planners of Ajegunle crashing to Talent Builders
of Lagos Island.

The Ajegunle side
lost 3-1 against the expectation of fans who had turned out in large
numbers at the New Gymnasium Complex of the National Stadium in Lagos,
hoping to see them continue their winning streak in the competition.
The tournament, which entered the round-robin stage yesterday, saw the
Builders getting off the starting blocks early to torment their
opponents. The Planners, egged on by the crowd refused to yield ground
until their defence was breached in the closing stages of the first
half.

By the victory, the
Builders find themselves in strong position to secure one of the semi
final tickets if they are able to defeat their last group opponent,
Ikeja All Stars of Ipaja, today at the same venue. In another match,
crowd favourite, Inter FC of Enugu, failed to raise their game and
consequently went down 3-1 to Royal Eagles of Warri. The match had
ended 1-1 at full time, but the Eagles team converted their mandatory
two penalty kicks, while the Enugu lads failed to convert theirs.

Inter face Royal FC of Aba in a match they must win to be assured of a place in the semi-final.

The first two teams in each group will qualify for the semi finals,
which will come up tomorrow at the same venue. A total of N8 million
cash prizes will be won by the winning teams; with the overall winner
going home with N5 million, while the losing finalist and the third
placed team will receive N2million and N1 million each.

Yesterday’s 3-0
victory over Bauchi State hockey team has further boosted the chances
of high riding Yobe Flickers playing in the final of the IEI National
Hockey League which comes up in July at the Abuja National Stadium.

The Yobe Boys thus
became the first team to get nearer one of the four slots up for grabs
in the Savannah Assembly having garnered the maximum points in three
matches played so far.

The team is on top of the league table with six goals difference following their victories over Katsina and Plateau.

One of the team’s
goal-scorers; Clinton Nwagbara, who scored the second goal from a well
executed penalty corner said they are looking forward to officially
booking their place in the final by beating Nagwamase of Niger in their
fourth game today.

“We will take the
match against Nagwamase very serious because once we take the three
points there no one can stop us from playing in Abuja again” he said.

Speaking in the
same vein, his coach, Tasiu Muhammed, said he is impressed with his
wards for living up to pre-tournament assessment. In one of the other
matches of the day, Niger State male team kept up its goal scoring
frenzy by scoring eight times against ‘whipping boys,’ Nasarawa State.

It is their second
game in the league and they have scored 16 goals, making their next
match against FCT Abuja, which needs a win to stay afloat an
interesting one today. Meanwhile, Nasarawa may just be on its way-out
of the tournament as it is yet to garner any point from three matches.

Assessment

While the male
teams have been impressive, the women’s teams have not measured up at
least in the reckoning of tournament technical director, Atanda Fatai.

Atanda who says he
has not been impressed with the women teams, said: “While the men teams
have been fantastic I don’t like what I am seeing in the female event.
I see a good number of players that are well past their prime and no
replacement from the younger ones. It is not good for the game.”

He added that the national final in Abuja would be very fierce in
the male event judging from the quality of play exhibited Kaduna The
League continues today with seven matches; five in the male event and
two in the female.

Brazil enjoyed a
comfortable 3-0 victory over Zimbabwe on Wednesday in their penultimate
warm-up match before they attempt to win the World Cup for the sixth
time next month.

Goals from Michel
Bastos, Robinho and Elano gave Brazil coach Dunga plenty to smile about
but an injury to goalkeeper Julio Cesar marred his afternoon.

The keeper went off after 26 minutes pointing to his chest allowing Heurelho Gomes a rare international appearance.

Julio Cesar had
been called into action to deny a double chance for Zimbabwe captain
and striker Mwaruwari Benjani and Ovidy Karuru. Soon after that he
indicated his discomfort to the bench and asked to come off.

Zimbabwe, although
only ranked 117th in the world, gave the World Cup favourites a useful
test and came close to scoring in each half to give their fans
something to cheer.

Brazil took control
and went ahead after 42 minutes with a stunning 20-metre free-kick from
Michel Bastos after Luis Fabiano was fouled by Zimbabwe’s Tinashe
Nengomasha near the edge of the box.

Two minutes later
Maicon played in Robinho with a stunning sweep from the outside of his
right boot and the striker cleverly clipped the ball home, leaving
Zimbabwe keeper Edmore Sibanda well beaten again.

Those two goals
ended some determined resistance from the home side who have not
qualified for next month’s finals in neighbouring South Africa.

Best goal

The best goal of
the game came after 56 minutes when Dani Alves traded passes with Julio
Baptista and then selflessly crossed for Elano to tap in rather than
score himself.

Brazil complete
their World Cup preparations against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam next
Monday and play their first game in the tournament against North Korea
in Johannesburg on June 15. They also face Ivory Coast and Portugal in
Group G.

Nigeria’s second
and third opponents at the fast approaching World Cup, Greece and South
Korea have both unveiled their final 23-man squad list for the
tournament taking place in South Africa.

The lists were
released separately early Tuesday by the Korea Football Association and
their Greek counterparts to meet FIFA’s June 1 deadline.

Argentina were the first team in Group B to make public their World Cup list followed by the Super Eagles.

South Korean coach
Huh Jung-moo slimmed down the squad from his previous list of 26, with
midfielders Koo Ja-cheol of Jeju United and Pohang Steelers’ midfielder
Shin Hyung-min missing the trip to South Africa 2010, along with
Japan-based striker Lee Keun-ho of Jubilo Iwata.

Central defender
Kwak Tae-hwi who injured his left knee in last Sunday’s defeat to
Belarus and was subsequently ruled out of the World Cup was replaced
with fellow defender Kang Min-soo who had been previously excluded from
the squad.

Former Middlesbrough striker Lee Dong-gook also made the final team despite not being fully recovered from a hamstring injury.

No Greek gift

There were however
no surprises in the final list released by the 71-year-old coach of the
Greek team Otto Rehhagel, who will be the oldest coach at the World
Cup, as he stuck with most of the players that featured in the World
Cup qualifiers such as Liverpool defender Sotiris Kyrgiakos and Celtic
striker Giorgos Samaras, as well as long serving captain Giorgos
Karagounis of Greek side Panathinaikos.

There was however no room for AEK Athens midfielder Grigoris Makos and Panionios defender Giorgos Tzavelas.

Rehhagel had
already cut his 30-man provisional squad to 25 but dropped the pair
from his chosen squad on Tuesday with the FIFA deadline looming large.

Christos
Patsatzoglou and Giorgos Seitaridis, who had been struggling with
injury, have been included despite concerns over the amount of game
time each had played with their domestic clubs.

Kaduna State team,
Kaduna Flickers, are currently treading on a tight rope as the team is
yet to record any win in the two matches played so far at the Savannah
Assembly of the ongoing IEI National Hockey League.

The team received
knocks from Coach Elisha Ahoun, who was bitter at the performance of
his wards as action got stiffer yesterday with teams slugging it out at
the ongoing Hockey League. Kaduna came back from a goal down to tie
yesterday’s match against Nagwamase from Niger State at the Ahmadu
Bello Hockey Pitch.

Speaking shortly
after the match, which ended 1-1, Ahoun said his boys, would have to
step up their game as they encounter Katsina Flickers today.

“We have to step up
our game otherwise we will not do well in this competition,” he said
“The League is a stiff one and you cannot say this team is weak and
that one is strong. So we just have to take all our chances as it come.
If we don’t we may have ourselves to blame in the end.”

Wasted opportunities

Kaduna Flickers
also drew their opening match against Bauchi and were lucky not to have
lost the three points at stake yesterday. Their saviour was Ahmed Aliyu
who scored a late equalizer after many missed opportunities.

Nagwamase for their
part lost a of chances with Ahmadu Aliyu squandering two begging
chances after Captain Saka Yahuza had scored the opener for his team.
Midway into the day’s fixture which has six and two matches in the male
and female events respectively, no team has gained a clear-cut
advantage over the other.

In the female event, Police Female Club and Plateau State are still
looking good after snatching victories from Kaduna State and Bauchi
respectively. Tournament Director, Walter Imoedemhe, said the league is
living up to billing and expects stiffer matches as the league grinds
to a halt. Six matches would be played today; four in the male event
and two in the female.

As news filtered in
that the Eagles were stranded in London en-route South Africa, good
news came that the Sports Minister, Isa Bio had saved the situation by
arranging with Arik Air to go to London and ferry the stranded members
of the Super Eagles delegation to South Africa.

The aircraft
chartered by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to fly the Super
Eagles from England to South Africa for the World Cup on Monday night
could not do the job because of a technical problem developed after it
had been cleared to lift off.

The Federation
hired the England-based airline, Luiz, despite a ministerial directive
that they should fly Arik, a Nigerian airline. After Bio learnt of the
mishap, and after contacting the players and the Nigerian High
Commissioners to South Africa and Great Britain, he arranged with Arik
Air to send a plane from Nigeria. The players were expected to fly the
players from Terminal four of Heathrow Airport to Durban, South Africa
at 10pm yesterday.

Nigerian not foreign

Earlier, the
minister had called the NFF President, Sani Lulu, to enquire of his
plans to fly the Eagles to South Africa, where he told him to contact
Arik Air for a plane painted in the green white green colour of Nigeria.

A government
insider, who spoke to NextSports on conditions of anonymity, said that
in a discussion with Lulu, the federal government had reiterated that
the team should not fly a commercial plane, but a Nigerian plane
painted in Nigerian colours.

Bio also gave Lulu
the telephone number of Arik chairman whom he called in the minister’s
presence. But because Lulu and the NFF probably had other plans, they
went ahead to hire a plane from a London-based airline. However, the
plan backfired as the plane could not take off due to alleged technical
problems related to lighting.

Following their
inability to travel on Monday as scheduled, the players and officials
were forced to spend the night at Radisson Hotel; about two minutes
drive from the airport.

Players disagree with NFF officials

There was a slight
disagreement between the players and officials of the NFF, who tried to
persuade the players that the company would make another arrangement
but the players who were already fed up with the shabby arrangement,
vowed not to travel with the airline.

The Nigeria High
Commissioner, Buba Marwa, and the Nigeria community had organized a
reception for the Eagles at Durban Airport, but when they did not
arrive as scheduled, Marwa contacted the minister. The minister then
made efforts to contact the team leader, Lulu, but he could not be
reached.

Bio eventually got
in touch with the Nigeria High Commissioner and the players, and
assured them that an Arik plane painted in Nigerian colours would pick
them up. The players are expected to arrive South Africa this morning.
The players most of whom also spoke on the conditions of anonymity
praised the minister for once again coming to the team’s rescue.

It will be recalled
that the minister had earlier come to the rescue of the team when the
NFF hired Hampshire Hotel, a motel on the highway, as the Eagles camp
in South Africa. The NFF inept planning has set the Eagles preparation
back by at least two days.