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Coming into Game 2, they were your classic no-hopers.

The Utah Jazz
entered its first-round NBA playoff series without its starting small
forward. In Game 1, it lost its starting centre.

Someone named
Kyrylo Fesenko was in the starting lineup Monday night. Radio guys ran
around trying to figure out how to pronounce his first name. (Think of
former Princeton University coach Pete Carril’s last name.) A Sunday
headline in Utah’s Deseret News read: “Face it, Jazz season all but
over.” Veteran Jazz coach Jerry Sloan just shrugged. “We’ve been doing
it all year,” he said.

Facing a
prohibitive deficit if they lost, the Jazz summoned the toughness of
their coach and made it a series with a gutsy 114-111 victory over the
Denver Nuggets that sends the series to Salt Lake City even at a game
apiece.

“We’re
short-handed, but our season’s not over yet,” said Jazz point guard
Deron Williams, who led his team with 33 points and 14 assists.
“There’s a lot of basketball to be played.” Now it’s the Nuggets who
must regroup. Their defense was absent-without-leave for much of the
game. You don’t win in the playoffs that way.

“We just gave them
too many layups,” acting Nuggets coach Adrian Dantley said. “They got
to the rim too easy.” Carmelo Anthony, the hero of Game 1, fouled out
of Game 2 with 32 points. But after making 18-of-25 shots in Game 1, he
made half as many, 9-of-25, in this one.

The Jazz spent much
of the time between Games 1 and 2 talking about being more physical
with Anthony, although Sloan tried to downplay it, saying he couldn’t
change the laid-back personalities of swingmen C.J. Miles and rookie
Wesley Matthews.

The Nuggets should have listened.

The Jazz came out
flopping, as if the notion they could play Melo physically with their
willowy defenders had actually been an inside joke.

Four of Anthony’s
personal fouls were offensive – in both senses of the word. The
flopping worked, as it often does in the NBA, because – let’s be honest
– the referees reward it about 10 times more often than they should.
Guy falls, whistle blows. It’s a Pavlovian response.

While Utah may take
credit for Anthony missing many of the same shots he made Saturday
night, sometimes basketball isn’t that complicated. Sometimes the
defense is responsible for shots not falling and sometimes it’s not.
Sometimes shooters just get hot. And sometimes they get cold.

Getting offensive

Dantley tried
repeatedly to point this out as people asked what was wrong with the
Nuggets when they lost their regular-season finale by 22.

In Game 1, he said
Monday, “We played the same way we did against Phoenix offensively, but
Melo made shots.” The same was true of Utah in the first half of Game
2. Williams made all five of his first-quarter shots, and Carlos Boozer
was 8-of-11 by intermission. The Jazz shot a stunning 68 percent from
the floor in the first half.

Although the
Nuggets’ defensive priority had been to play Williams better in
transition, Ty Lawson seemed to be the only defender who could stay in
front him and he picked up two fouls in nine first-half minutes.
Although Williams seemed to score at will, the Nuggets did induce him
into seven turnovers.

Boozer is almost
impossible to defend when he’s hitting his fadeaway jumper because he
gives ground to create space for his shot.

Midway through the third quarter, the Jazz was up 14 and looked ready to pull out the classic shorthanded victory.

But even on a night when his shot wasn’t falling, Anthony refused to submit.

After he fed J.R.
Smith for a 27-foot 3-pointer to cut the deficit to seven, Melo faced
up Boozer at the other end, batted his pass into the air, caught it,
dribbled upcourt, had it slapped away, chased it down, got it back,
dribbled into the lane and laid it in over two defenders.

Then he danced back
up the floor urging on his teammates: “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Smith
pointed to the nonexistent watch on his wrist as if to say, it’s about
that time.

Not this time. The Jazz did what it had to do. Now it’s up to the Nuggets to return the favor.

New York Times News Service

South Africa on
Tuesday unveiled a 19 billion rand transport upgrade for the World Cup
including revamped airports, a high speed urban train and a new bus
system.

Officials denied
too much had been spent on the soccer spectacular, saying the new
infrastructure would leave a lasting legacy in a country where the
majority black population was starved of public transport under
apartheid.

President Jacob
Zuma opened the greatly expanded Johannesburg airport — already
Africa’s biggest — which officials said would handle 28 million
passengers a year and more than 60 flights a day.

Journalists also
travelled on the gleaming new Gautrain, which will link the posh
district of Sandton, where many World Cup fans will stay, and the
airport.

The train would run
on this leg before the World Cup, starting on June 11, officials said.
It will be expanded to central Johannesburg and Pretoria next year.

“We have not had
wonderful public transport in South Africa,” Deputy Transport Minister
Jeremy Cronin said after the airport opening ceremony.

“Government has
identified the privilege of hosting the World Cup as an opportunity
also to lay down the beginnings of a wonderful public transport
system,” he said.

Soccer’s governing
body FIFA last year flagged transport as a concern but officials said
the system was ready and would be able to handle the world’s
most-watched sporting event.

“Hassle-free transport”

“We are quite
convinced that international visitors to South Africa will have a
wonderful experience culturally, sporting wise and also a hassle-free
transport system and that there will be a legacy left for ordinary
South Africans,” Cronin added.

Airports in Cape Town and other host cities have also been refurbished and a brand new one built in Durban.

Transport Minister
Sibusiso Ndebele said 570 buses had been purchased for the World Cup,
110 of them to provide an inter-city service.

“Government has
invested more than 19 billion rand on public transport infrastructure
for the World Cup to ensure that the tournament leaves a rich legacy
for our country and continent,” he added.

Ndebele said South
Africa would provide World Cup fans with a ground transportation system
that “is reliable, easily accessible, safe and secure, convenient and
affordable.” Cronin confirmed two or three passenger liners would act
as floating hotels during the month-long tournament.

There have been
concerns that airlines may not be able to handle the fan traffic but
Skhumbuzo Macozoma, a transport specialist from the local organising
committee, said “right now we don’t have any alarm bells.” The number
of foreign fans expected was recently sharply cut from 450,000 to
200,000 because of the world economic crisis, high costs and alarmist
reporting about violent crime.

But officials
denied this may result in over-investment in the World Cup because the
transport system would remain for the future and extra planes were
being leased rather than purchased.

“There is no message that says we have spent too much,” Macozoma

Nigeria midfielder Mikel Obi looks set
to miss Chelsea’s English Premier League encounter against Stoke City
at Stamford Bridge after aggravating a knee injury against Tottenham
Hotspurs last weekend.

Mikel hobbled off the pitch after
33minutes in the Blues’ 2-1 loss and will now be expected to be out for
10 days as his club hopes to win their last three games in the race to
win the title.

The Super Eagles star has played a key
role in the club’s league campaign this season, particularly in the
absence of Michael Essien, who has also been another influential figure
in the team’s midfield.

Chelsea expects Essien to be back for
the Stoke clash, after being out of action since injuring his knee in
January while featuring for the Black Stars of Ghana at the African
Nations Cup in Angola, but their defeat at the White Hart Lane last
Saturday further underlined the impact of their Nigeria international.
The Tottenham loss was the Blues’ sixth league defeat this season, and
it was only in the 2-1 defeat at Everton in February that Mikel
featured for more than 60minutes.

Mikel may lack the versatility and
attacking guile of Essien but the former Lyn Oslo star has proven to
been the secret behind Chelsea’s resilience in the defence this season
as the holding midfielder. The Blues midfield collapsed following his
substitution at Spurs and it was no surprise skipper John Terry had to
be sent off following two yellow cards. Mikel’s replacement, 33
year-old Ballack, could not match the pace of the Tottenham midfield
led by Croatian playmaker, Luka Modric and even Deco had to pay more
attention to support the defence rather than orchestrating Chelsea’s
attack.

Impact

Without their Nigerian enforcer to
shield the backline, the Stamford Bridge side have often struggle to
escape defeat. Chelsea’s first loss in the league was at Wigan last
year after Mikel was forced off at half time following a knee injury.
It left the club’s midfield in shambles and exposed their defence in a
game where Petr was sent off. The match ended 3-1 for the hosts as the
Lactics pounced on the Blues’ weakness in the middle. Even the presence
of Essien could not prevent the defeat.

Mikel was still out injured as the
Blues suffered their second loss against Aston Villa in October last
year despite having Essien for another 90minutes at the Villa Park.
Despite playing a key role in the 3-0 demolition of Arsenal in November
in a strong midfield that included Essien, Ancelotti decided to bench
Mikel in his team’s next league match at Manchester City and it
backfired. Chelsea were down 2-0 before the Italian manager called on
the Nigerian to replace Ballack on 64minutes but the match 2-1. The
pressure on the defence sprung up again as the centre back duo of Terry
and Ricardo Carvalho were cautioned before the introduction of the
Eagles star into the game.

Chelsea fourth defeat also suggested
Mikel’s cannot be ignored. Manchester City were leading 2-1 at Stamford
Bridge before Ancelotti removed the former Flying Eagles star for
Belletti on 60 minutes. Both Belletti and Ballack failed to rescue the
midfield and they both got their marching orders as City went on to win
4-2 in February this year.

Mikel, who celebrates his 23rd birthday tomorrow, however played for
76minutes before being replaced a minute after Louis Saha scored the
winner in the Blues’ 2-1 defeat to Everton at the Goodison Park. He has
been cautioned three times in 25 league appearances this season.

The new minister of
sports Ibrahim Isah Bio yesterday revealed that there will soon be a
sports summit, the first of it kind in Nigeria, to find solutions to
the problems facing sports and produce a road map that will take
Nigeria back to the pinnacle of sports.

Speaking in
response to calls by journalists for a sports summit, Bio agreed that
the call was in line with his thinking and machinery will soon be set
in motion for the summit.

Bio was sad at the
level of decay of facilities in stadia across the country, especially
the National Stadium, Lagos, the neglect of sports at the grassroots,
lack of programme and planning for elite athletes, among other
problems, and he agreed with member of the sports family on the need to
urgently have a sports summit where they will sit and examine the
challenges of sports and the way forward.

A five year plan
will be decided at the Summit as regards the development of sports in
Nigeria. All members of the sports family, administrators, coaches,
sports journalists, athletes and others are expected to add their
inputs.

Bio said the
outcome of the summit will be the Bible of sports in Nigeria, “new
minister may come and go but the policy and guideline fashioned out at
the summit will remain, they may thinker with, there won’t be any
radical change in the sports policy that the summit will fashion out.”

Attempt at disguise

Unlike other
ministers before him, Bio got to the National Stadium at 10.00 am.
Journalists who had expected the minister to be late but he surprised
them by coming early as promised.

Due to the
minister’s visit, the Stadium Manager, Alalamu Abolore stopped petty
traders from displaying their wares but the garbage heap could not be
hidden from the ministers, and he promptly told the manager to clean
the mess in the stadium.

When one of the
boxers who trains everyday at the stadium was asked why he was absent,
he said they were told on Monday not to come to the stadium to train
because of the visit of the Sport Minister. Yemi Adepoju one of the
stadium trader who did not display her wares said one official said
they don’t want to them to hang around, as the usually dirty
environment must look clean for the August visitor.

Perhaps the
minister knowing that all might not be as it seems, when addressing the
press said he is not on a doctored visit, and he will not let the DG
direct him to what he wanted him to see, but that he will go inside the
stadium to see the level of rot himself.

State of facilities

Bio who could not
hide his disgust for the state of facilities which has been allowed to
degenerate by successive ministers promised to give the edifice a face
lift before going into partnership with would-be investors.

“The facilities
does not speak well of the country and much needs to be done to improve
its state. If we want to produce athletes that would win medals for us
in international events then we have to provide a conducive environment
for them to do so,” he said.

The minster visited the Sports village, which was built to aid camping of athletes.

At the sports
village, he complained about the soak away, water reservoir and dining
hall which had no dining table or chair. And he ordered that the place
should be put in shape in two weeks or its managers risk losing their
jobs. The minster also challenged the management on the sorry state of
the edifice, the gymnasium, table tennis courts and the main bowl
amongst many other places, in the National Stadium.

After the
inspection, while addressing journalist, he assured that he will not be
a football minister but a minster for all sports.

Football versus other sports

He added that his
focus will be primarily on sports in which the country has comparative
advantage and opportunity of winning multiple medals. “Football can
only fetch us a one medal, I will like to concentrate on sports like
athletics were we have many medals at stake, swimming, boxing,
weightlifting and the likes,” he said. The minster however pointed out
that the FIFA World Cup is his immediate concern, as the tournament is
barely 50 days away.

According to the
minister, a technical team has been sent to inspect the facility in
place for the Super Eagles camping in Durban while the team’s coach,
Lars Largerback is also expected to brief him on the readiness of the
team.

Bio enjoined everyone to unite in lifting sports in the county, as it has proved to be a unifying factor for the people.

He promised to be firm in his policies stating that there will be no sacred cows.

“There would be no
sacred cows, those that have been alleged on corruption would all be
investigated.” He hinted that the missing $236,000 from the Nigeria
Football Federation would be revisited and appropriate action taken.

Ask sporting buffs, they will tell you for free the problems
facing Nigeria sports today: lack of equipment, facilities or planning, aged or
aging players, age falsification, a partisan sporting press, inept and ill
equipped coaches and others problems too numerous to mention.

But while the above no doubt are true, the biggest problem
facing sports was aptly captured by Anthony Kodjo Williams, the former chairman
of Nigeria Football Federation: self serving and half baked administrators on
and off the field.

Williams tagged them ‘Alamala administrators’, since then they
have also added voodoo and other ‘unscientific’ ways of managing sports to
their style And as long as they are around, our sports will never move forward.

They will do anything to resist change because, in the midst of
the confusion and disorganisation that reigns in sports, they amass millions
each year, while sports continue to die a slow and gradual death.

It’s all garbage

As new sports minister Ibrahim Isa Bio visits the National
Stadium today, he should gird his loins. About three decades ago, enchanted BBC
staff who came to cover the Lagos ’73 All Games told their local colleagues:
“This is not a Sport Stadium, but a Sport City.”

Today however, what Bio will see is Garbage City, where the only
activities that thrives there are the sale of alcohol and prostitution by
night, while officials of the NSC have turned the place into an events centre
where they rake in millions monthly from renting the various venues to
churches, mosques, wedding reception, musical shows, parking lots and other
forms of activities, and they never rendered account to the commission or used
the monies to repair the edifice.

Bio should think about ministers before him since the beginning
of this new republic in 1999 – Damishi Sango, Isaiah Aku, Steve Akiga, Musa
Muhammad, Simiala Sambawa, Bala Kao’je, Abdurrahman Gimba and the immediate
past minister Sanni Ndanusa, They all began their tenures by visiting the
National Stadium, Lagos. There, they always promised to do something; but they
all left without doing anything.

At the end of their tenures, the civil servants and sycophants
in the media, who praised them to high heavens while they were in office, would
be the first to castigate them the moment they are sacked.

I almost wept for my profession the Saturday Ndanusa was
removed, when I read venom being poured on the man by journalists who made
weekly trips to Abuja to wine and dine with him when he was minister, telling
him that he was the best thing that ever happened to sports.

These are guys who cheered Ndanusa on in his ambition to be
president of the Olympics Committee. And now that he is gone, they are telling
the world that his ambition to be NOC president was responsible for his lack of
focus.

Asking hard questions

Bio need to ask Sports Commission staff what the facilities
department in the commission is doing, if all the stadia in the country are in
such terrible shape.

The director of sports development needs to explain to Bio the
number of athletes they have developed in the last ten years. The minister
needs to ask why the commission’s main job has been reduced to preparing for
the Olympic Games, All African Games, Commonwealth Games, and other games and
championship, and its primary responsibility of discovering athletes has been
relegated to the background.

The federation chairmen should explain to the minister why the
only thing that occupies their time is the politics of who becomes the next
president of NOCs instead of developing their sports. They should explain why
many of them have not organised a single competition since the beginning of the
year.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria owes athletes, officials,
former athletes and other members of the athletics family millions of naira.
That is a question waiting to be asked.

The minister also needs to ask the head of AFN who authorised
him to take a loan of N25 million from a former athlete. What is the approval
limit of the director general of the commission? Why would a federation
chairman take a loan of N25 million without the approval of the commission of
the board of the AFN?

Civil servants as praise
singers

Back to the managers at NSC, and other arms of sports, they
will, like they did to those before him sing tunes that are pleasant to his
ears.

A majority of those scheming to come back into the Nigeria
Professional League board and the Nigeria Football Federation will sing all
sorts of tunes to the minister ears, but he should ask them one question: what
have they done since their tenure began to justify re-election?

Sanni Lulu will point to the U-17 and U-20, but the minister
should ask him why the players that won the U-17 in 2007 are not doing well in
their respective clubs or for the country. What have they done with the
allocation in the last few years?

With election a few months away, they are asking the minister to
steer clear of the elections; that it will be government interference. But they
have forgotten that Sambawa, Amos Adamu and others used government machinery to
impose Lulu as NFF president.

Nduka Irabor had organised the freest and the fairest election
in the history of Nigeria sport, which returned Ibrahim Galadima as president,
but the election was annulled by the government and Lulu was imposed on
everybody. And now the same Lulu and his board members are talking about
government interference? They may have short memories, but we do not.

As for the men of the NPL, a majority of those fighting to be
NPL leaders are self seekers, only wanting to feed on sports.

Bio revolution

The bottom line is that this new sports minister’s revolution
will amount to nothing, if the present hawks in sports administration in
Nigeria are not sent packing.

Bio, do what will etch your name in history forever. Send the alamala
administrators out.

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.

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.”

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.

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

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.