RandaFooty: Everything Nigerian football, home and abroad

Iorfa explains significance of Lobi’s jersey Lobi Stars duo of Ezekiel Bassey & Tony Okpotu modeling the jerseys: (Black & White: Tiv Colour) Lobi Stars supremo, Dominic Iorfa, has revealed that the club’s jerseys for the 2012/2013 season symbolize the unique tradition of the Benue people. The jerseys for the new season were unveiled recently by Nigeria’s leading sportswear brand, OWU Sportswear, at an impressive ceremony organised by celebrated Sports PR Consultant, Ojeikere Aikhoje.   Lobi’s duo of Ezekiel Bassey and Tony Okpotu, who are fringe players of the Super Eagles, modeled the jerseys. “The new jerseys represent the Tiv, Idoma and Igede tribes in Benue State. Black & Red: Idoma Colour “Black and White is the Tiv colour, Black and Red is the Idoma colour, while Black and Blue signifies the Igede people in Benue State,” Iorfa said on his personal blog, iorfaonline.blogspot.com . Black & Blue: Igede Colour The former Q...

  1. South Africa can put up a show..... if the want to ( or maybe not). The pitches in this years edition have been crap to say the least. The World Cup pitches used was top notch, maybe this is a step down? who knows, i expected better, i hope it improves as the tournament progresses. 2. The Ivory Coast are not a one man team. Many have labelled the CIV ' Drogba and others' but it's now more of Yaya Toure, Gervinho and others. The way they annihilated Tunisia in their second game speaks volumes of that. Is this their year? lets wait and see. 3. African referees haven't regressed & evidently so. Questionable and inconsistent calls have marred a lot of games. Togo scored a legitimate goal vs CIV that was disallowed. Ghana's goalkeeper Fatau Dauda picked the ball outside his box and was yellow carded while Soumala Abdoulaye of Burkina Faso was given his matching orders for the same offense. Zambia was gifted a penalty that never was vs Nigeria.......

The Super Eagles game against Zambia was a one of  of two halves. Nigeria was pathetic in the first half, they allowed the Zambians free reign in and around the midfield, though Fegor Ogude tried hard to contain the rampaging Zambians. The 4-3-3 formation Coach Stephen deployed didn't work to full effect because the midfield wasn't tight and creative enough to release Ahmed Musa and Victor Moses who played as auxiliary strikers to Emmanuel Emenike. Musa was the main culprit as his wayward crossing put paid to promising counter attacks by Nigeria.  The second half was much more better as Nigeria began to assert themselves on the game. Igiebor for me, was the weakest link in the midfield, his basketball type zonal marking left Ogenyi Onazi ( playing in an unfamiliar right back role) exposed even though both Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa who were alternating between the wings should have tracked back better to support him.  Below is ...

THE NIGERIAN PREMIER LEAGUE: PROBLEMS, PROSPECTS AND A REVIEW OF THE 2012 SEASON T he Nigerian premier league is ranked as the strongest African league for the 2012 season across the continent while also occupying the 24 th  position in the world. This ranking is as a result of classification conducted by the International Football History and Statistics, IFHS through the assessment of performances of clubs from January 1 to July 10 2012, by adding points in all continental competitions of clubs to rate the NPL as the No. 1 in Africa and...

Brendan Ogbu was the hero of the day as his goal late into added time   ensure Heartland Fc of Owerri     retained their trophy. The final held   at the Teslim Balogu Stadium in Lagos came alive as early as the  5 th   minute when Ezekiel Bassey scored to give Lobi Stars the lead, they continued to create chances and were in the ascendancy as the game   progressed. Heartland hit back in the  37th minute through Jolly Osas.   The game swung from end to end as the teams took the game to each   other,  Tony Okpotu was full...

A rundown of selected performances by Nigerians across the globe, goals & highlights England Mikel Obi was once again in the thick of things as Chelsea ran out 2-0 winners against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge courtesy an Eden Hazard penalty kick and  Fernando Torres strike. New boy Victor Moses was introduced to the Stamford Bridge faithful before the game.Victor Anichebe was an used sub in Everton''s 3-1 away win at Aston Villa. Down the ladder, Super Eagles one time invitee   Carl Ikeme (pic: fm-base.co.uk) Carl Ikeme continued between the sticks for Wolves as they continued life in the Npower Championship, he posted a good performance as they drew 1-1 with Derby County. Kelvin Etuhu was on from the start for Barnsley who were trashed 5-1 by Brighton & Hove Albion. Dan Shittu was an unused sub for Millwall who lost 3-2 to Sheffield Wednesday. Kayode Odejayi scored for Rotherham in a 1-1 draw with Chsterfield Turkey Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo w...

The clamor for more Nigerian born players to be co-opted into the Super Eagles set up reached a crescendo when Ghana and Senegal successfully adopted foreign born players into their squads which yielded tremendous results and improvement in the overall quality of their play. 9jafooty.blogspot.com combed Europe and other parts of the world for players with Nigerian blood who are eligible for any of our national teams. The list contains players who are either born in Nigeria, but bred abroad or have a Nigerian parent. In a four part special, 9jafooty.blogspot.com brings you some of the talented Nigerian-born players abroad who can do the business for Nigeria at different levels. BERNIE IBINI-ISIE Bernie Ibini-Isie (pix courtesy ccm.au) (Born 12 September 1992, to Nigerian parents, in  Rivers State, Nigeria ). He emigrated to Australia with his parents when he was a kid. He grew up in the suburbs of We...