Drowning of Dolphins
By Victor Ugborgu
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
A good beginning by Nigerian clubside in CAF championship ends poorly
Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt, Nigeria's representatives in the 2005 CAF Confederation Cup lost 0-3 to the Royal Armed Forces of Morocco in the final of the championship played at the Rabat Stadium, Morocco, November 19. In the first leg played in Port Harcourt, November 6, Dolphins won 1-0.
Dolphins faced their opponents with little or no preparation in the finals. They could not defend their slim victory in the first leg. Some of the key players were dropped from the match because of the internal crisis in the team. The sudden replacement of the goalkeeper, Uche Akubuike with Chijoke Ejioke did not help matters. Akubuike did quite well in the first leg played in Port Harcourt. His brilliant saves robbed the Moroccans of victory in Nigeria.
Dolphins started well at the beginning of the championship. They drew with Ismaili of Egypt both in Cairo and Port Harcourt. They defeated Arab Contractors 1-0 in Egypt and 2-1 at home thrashed FC 105 of Gabon 3-0 in Port Harcourt and 3-2 in Libreville. The Dolphins also crushed highly rated King Faisal of Ghana 2-1 both home and away.
Musa Abdullahi, coach of the Dolphins said his team lost to a superior team. "We did our best with the players available. Some of my key players had various degrees of injuries that prevented them from playing. Moreso, we lost to a better team," he said.
Allwell Onyenso, Rivers State commissioner for sports said nobody should be blamed for the loss. "Football is all about winning some and losing some. The players did their best, but it was just that it was not our day," he said.
Sport Short Takes
By Naomi Musa
Athletics
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos State governor declared open the week long state's sport festival at the Onikan Stadium, November 20. Tinubu called on all the participating athletes to uphold the spirit of friendliness to make the game a success.
NFA
Paul Bassey, publisher of Today Sports, has called on the board members of the Nigerian Football Association, NFA, to resign following failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and the failure of Nigerian clubs Enyimba and Rangers International FC to win continental championships.
V-Mobile Competition
The V-Mobile team on November 20, defeated team Ericsson 13-7 to claim the Turaki Golf Cup. It also marked the end of the third edition of the V-Mobile African masters international tournament which was held at the fifth Chukka Resort, Kaduna.
The game was organised by the two telecommunications giants to honour Atiku Abubakar, the vice-president for his support for polo and its development in the country.
Gateway Games
Gbenga Daniel, governor of Ogun State, has justified the suspension of five officials of Gateway Games. He said the officials were given approval to source for funds to organise the games which they allegedly abused by subjecting their job to the public service way of spending. He explained that the suspension would not affect the preparation for the national sports festival in 2006.
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