Tag: MARTINS

Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, has expressed joy at returning to winning action for the Seattle Sounders after weeks of being laid off by injury.

Martins was rusty, and failed to convert on any of several scoring chances, but his presence was clearly appreciated in Saturday night’s 2-1 win over Chicago.

Despite having barely even trained since leaving the game against Toronto FC on August 10 with an ankle injury, Martins still played 89 minutes and was able to help the Sounders win their fourth straight game.

“I wasn’t expecting to play 90 minutes at all because I wasn’t playing that good,” the Nigerian striker told reporters after the game. But I’m all good now. I have to start doing well and do everything that they say.

The Eagles striker got off to a fast start, getting behind the Fire defense on two separate occasions in the first five minutes. But each time his shot came while trying to hold off a defender and Sean Johnson was able to make the saves.

He had an even better chance in the 15th minute. He collected a pass from Lamar Neagle with the keeper at his mercy from about 14 yards out, he fired over the crossbar.

“It was very difficult for me because I didn’t train for three weeks, Martins said. I just want to play on the team as usual and I’m glad that we won today.”

Obafemi Martins has been ruled out of the Major League Soccer(MLS) game between Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamos scheduled for Houston today.

The Nigerian striker was spotted at Washington’s SeaTac airport on Thursday, departing with the team, but he was not dressed in the team travel gear like the others.

Instead, the Nigerian international was dressed in what looked like denim shirts with black pants and boots, with a back pack, holding his travel documents.

Martins was injured last weekend, after a clumsy tackle in the 2-1 win at Toronto. He was replaced by Clint Dempsey.

The USA international will likely start in his place, alongside Lamar Neagle, who has taken his chance in the first team with both hands in the absence of Eddie Johnson.

Back flipping Super Eagles ace and Seattle Sounders forward Obafemi Martins ,will be hoping to increase his goal tally when he lines up against SJ Earthquakes Sunday at the Buck Shaw Stadium California.

Both teams are campaigning in the Western Conference of the American Major Soccer League (MLS) with just three points difference between them. While Sounders are on the 7th position with 24 points in 16 matches, Earthquakes occupy the 8th position with 21 points in 20 matches.

Martins who joined the side on 15th March this year from Levante, after settling a $3.9 million buyout clause, has so far scored six goals for the side, five goals short of Montreal’s Marco Di Vaio who leads the MLS top scorer’s chart with 11 goals in the kitty.

The Nigerian international is however not likely to enjoy a jolly ride in the encounter, as Earthquakes are sure to give him close marking ,recalling how the former Newcastle and Wolfsburg star scored the closing goal in the 4-0 demolition of Earthquakes May 11th.

Martins in that encounter had come in as second half substitute for homeboy Brad Evans with Sounders three goals up, he increased the tally to four in the 90th minute just before three minutes added time to the delight of German coach Siegfried Schmid.

SUPER Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins scored his third goal in the MLS as Seattle Sounders FC secured a 4-2 win over the Western Conference leaders, FC Dallas, at CenturyLink Field on Saturday.

Eddie Johnson scored a pair of goals and Lamar Neagle scored one and assisted on another as the two sides played a wide open match flush with scoring chances.

The result gives Seattle its third successive win after the club began the campaign on a five-match winless streak.

Dallas, meanwhile, saw their nine-game unbeaten run come to an end despite goals from Kenny Cooper and Michel just seven minutes apart in the second half.

Seattle exploited a poor Dallas defense in the first half and took the lead after 16 minutes as Johnson found himself in on goal after a header from Osvaldo Alonso allowed him to beat goalkeeper Raul Fernandez.

Neagle was next to get in behind the defense and he latched on to a nice through ball from Brad Evans to net Seattle’s second goal.

Blas Perez struck the post with a header shortly before halftime for Dallas, but the visitors got back to within a goal in the 54th with a Cooper header from eight yards.

Michel leveled the contest seven minutes later when he curled a corner kick directly into the net as Seattle goalkeeper Michael Gspurning got caught up in traffic.

But Seattle answered immediately and scored less than a minute later with Neagle slipping a ball into the area for Johnson to finish.

Dallas had to play the final 17 minutes with 10 men as Perez was sent off for elbowing Leo Gonzalez, and Obafemi Martins locked up the win seven minutes from time when he rolled the ball into an empty net after Evans collected a rebound and squared it to him 10 yards from goal.

Contrary to reports made available by the media department of the Super Eagles, Obafemi Martins actually breezed into the Transcorp Hotel camp base of the team around 1:15pm.

Clad in a T-shirt and jeans with a black canvas made his way to the reception of the Hotel looking very tired after a long trip from his new base in the United States where he just signed for Seatle Sounders.

Martins did not only miss the media chat, he was conspicuously absent at the reception for the Eagles at the Governor’s Office.

The reason SportingLife gathered was to allow the self-styled Weapon of Mass Destruction to rest well enough for him to participate in the Wednesday’s evening training session having just arrived the camp barely three hours before the training.

SportingLife can report that Eagles’ media officer, Ben Alaiya earlier Tuesday told journalists that Martins had arrived alongside Mikel but were only told to remain in their hotel rooms.

Mikel was not also around to field questions from journalists.

Defending the duo for their inability to come Eagles’ head coach, Stephen Keshi said: “Martins is still on his way and probably in the next few minutes he should be here at the hotel. Either he is landing or he is about to land. Mikel on his part we just wanted him to take a rest. That was the reason both missed this gathering.”