The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oliseh

  • Oliseh ready for ‘aggressive’ Tanzania

    Oliseh ready for ‘aggressive’ Tanzania

    Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, has said he expects surprises on Saturday from the Taifa Stars of Tanzania, whose style of play he describes as “aggressive.”

    The Super Eagles watched video clips of recent Tanzania matches on Tuesday night, africanFootball.com reports.

    “We have watched the video of Tanzania. They are a very aggressive team,” Oliseh told africanFootball.com.

    “We might get some surprises during the game and we expect anything from the side going by what we have seen in the tapes.”

    Tanzania trained in Turkey preparatory to African Nations Cup qualifier and the team will line up players from the country’s league with a sprinkling of foreign-based strikers led by the TP Mazembe pair of Thomas Ulimwengu and Mbwana Samata.

    This will also be Oliseh’s first match in charge of the three-time African champions and despite the huge expectations on his shoulders, the former Nigeria skipper said there would be only three outcomes on Saturday in Dar es Salaam.

    “There are three things that can happen in a game – we win, we draw or we lose,” he said.

     

  • Oliseh rues Enyeama’s withdrawal from Tanzania tie

    Oliseh rues Enyeama’s withdrawal from Tanzania tie

    Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh , has admitted the late withdrawal of skipper Vincent Enyeama from Saturday’s African Nations Cup qualifier in Tanzania has put him “in a tight corner.”

    Lille goalkeeper Enyeama has apparently pulled out of the match after he rowed with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over his comments regarding the safety of Kaduna for June AFCON qualifier against Chad, africanFootball.com reports.

    “The late withdrawal has put me in a tight concern,”africanFootball.com quoted Oliseh as saying at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.

    “He asked to be withdrawn from the team. And the reason for that I don’t know, I think it’s best you ask the player.”

    In Enyeama’s absence, Wolves goalkeeper Carl Ikeme is now expected to make his Eagles debut in Dar es Salaam on Saturday afternoon.

    Ikeme said he will hope to reproduce for Nigeria the form he has displayed at his English Championship club.

    “I will just try and do what I do in my club,” he assured.

    “I will not be under pressure but I will give my best. I am not going to try and be Vincent (Enyeama), but I will just try and play my own game and give my best.”

  • Oliseh rates GloPremier League high

    Oliseh rates GloPremier League high

    Super Eagles’ coach, Sunday Oliseh has rated the Globacom premier League high and confessed that he hasn’t watched much of the games because he was just resuming as coach. He promised to give more home based players the opportunity to play in the National team.

    Oliseh further revealed that he had so far invited players from the home front that are eager to play for their fatherland as dedication is one key to play for the super Eagles.

    He, however, confessed that he had penciled down at least two good players in the encounter he  watched between Shooting stars and Abia Warriors in Ibadan last Sunday  but refused to disclose their names.

    Oliseh defended his choice of 18 foreign based professional footballers as against six from the local league saying Nigeria needs to prosecute every match with the best legs anywhere in the world.

    The ex-Eagles captain watched the encounter in Ibadan last Sunday in company of his brother, Churchill Oliseh and his assistant coach from Belgium, Lucito and that was his first game in the Nigerian Professional league since  assumption as Eagles coach.

  • Oliseh looks forward to first game

    Oliseh looks forward to first game

    Ahead of his first task as the Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh is expressing optimism about his chances to start on a good note.

    Oliseh has been working with the home-based players for the last two weeks and has been joined by the overseas based lads, and says he is optimistic, but must see all the players to know how optimistic he should be.

    “I’m optimistic,” Oliseh stated confidently. “We have to get everybody on ground to know how optimistic we should be but we are also realistic to know we have to get the train on track first, so gradually we’re starting.”

    The 40-year old former Super Eagles captain has already listed six out of the 23 invited home based players that will travel to Dar-es-Salaam for the 2017 AFCON qualifier game, with the overseas based counterparts.

    Conspicuously missing from the six home based players listed is striker Gbolahan Salami, who couldn’t return on time with his international passport, having been permitted to travel to Lagos to retrieve it from the Norwegian embassy.

  • Oliseh watches 3SC beat Abia Warriors

    Oliseh watches 3SC beat Abia Warriors

    Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh was in Ibadan to watch Shooting Stars beat Abia Warriors 2-0 in a Week 26 league match on Sunday.

    3SC now have 38 points from 26 games. Former El Kanemi Warriors striker Sunday Adetunji scored the opening goal in the 28th minute.

    He completed a brace with the second goal to douse the tension as the Chisom Chikatara-led attack in the second half mounted pressure for goal.

    Adetunji has now scored six goals this season.

    In Jos, Giwa FC defeated Lobi Stars 2-0 in a dramatic game.

    Lobi looked good to get a point from the game but in the dying minutes the game turned around for the hosts.

    Hassan Abubakar opened scoring in the 83rd minute, before Aminu Mbai doubled the score two minutes to the end of the game.

  • Code of Conduct: Oliseh slams fines on erring Eagles

    •Players to decide how much

    Super Eagles’ players are now to decide the kind of penalties they will face if they breach the code of conduct which outlines the behavioural pattern expected of the team by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) during camping and major tournaments.

    An authoritative source told SportingLife that Sunday Oliseh, who will take charge of his first game as the Eagles’ gaffer on September 5 against the Taifa Stars of Tanzania, has already keyed into the NFF’s idea of a code of conduct to instill discipline into the squad.

    However, in agreeing with the initiative,Oliseh it was understood wants to bring a new dimension to the dispensation of the penalties that players will face should they breach the rules.

    Our source said:”You know Oliseh is a true professional who also does not condone any form of indiscipline and that’s why he’s in support of the code of conduct introduced by the NFF.

    “But Oliseh wants to make the whole process more democratic by allowing the players themselves to fix the fines they would pay for any offence they commit while camping for matches and tournaments.

    “In doing this, Oliseh believes that the players won’t have any reason to complain since they were the ones who decided on the kind of fines in the first place”

    To this effect, SportingLife gathered that the former Eagles’ captain will hold a crucial meeting with the team when all the invited players must have arrived camp in Abuja to thrash out this issue.

    It would be recalled that after Nigeria’s 2017 AFCON qualifier against Chad on June 13, the NFF queried Eagles’ captain Vincent Enyeama over his remarks about the safety of Kaduna State hosting the game.

    Also Eagles midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi, who earned a straight red card in the same match was issued a letter of reprimand and ordered to produce a written apology and fined the sum of $5,000.

    Though, the two players were later pardoned by the NFF, it is expected that such incidents in the future will be handled within the team if Oliseh’s initiative gets accepted by the players.

  • MOTHER TO OLISEH: Eagles job na fire, my son

    MOTHER TO OLISEH: Eagles job na fire, my son

    •If to say he easy, na everybody for dey do am
    •Gives son consent to take Nigeria job

    Nigeria’s senior team chief coach Sunday Oliseh shocked his audience last week Monday at the Onikan Stadium’s conference centre when he revealed what his mother told him before accepting to take the Super Eagles job.

    Disclosing this to newsmen at a jaw-jaw session, Oliseh said: “Let me share this with you. When I was to take the job, I told my dad and my mother. I will share what my mum told me with you.

    “I called my father and mother that they are offering me this job, but my mother told me ‘Na fire my son’. But she told me something that I really loved, she said “If to say he easy, na everybody for dey do am” But if I want to succeed, I should work hard to do it well that was what she said.

    ” I don’t have the base to work on but I try to look at it that in the past one year, we have played 62 players and that is practically six teams. I don’t mean those who played regularly but those who were invited to camp. In the national

    teams we have over 11 to 12 games and for now I don’t have a base of six regular players that I can build the team around.

    To tell me now to start performing miracles by winning matches otherwise you resign if you don’t win this. I don’t think Guardiola or Morinho will do that? My job is cut out for me and it is a lot of work. I look at it as a difficult task but I cannot succeed if we are antagonising ourselves.”

  • Give me a chance, Obafemi Martins begs Oliseh

    Give me a chance, Obafemi Martins begs Oliseh

    •Says he wants to score goals for new boss
    •Denies international retirement

    Nigeria international, Obafemi Martins has asked new Super Eagles Coach, Sunday Oliseh to give him a chance to prove himself just as he has backed the coach to succeed with the national team.

    The Seattle Sounders striker, only returned to action for the Major League Soccer (MLS) side last weekend after two months out, netting brace as they crushed Orlando 4-0.

    One of the goals was voted AT&T Goal of the Week – the third time that the former Newcastle and Inter Milan man has taken home the gong.

    The former VfL Wolfsburg star player believes his present form will be vital for the senior national team as he is already dreaming of scoring goals for the Oliseh’s new-look team.

    “I hope I will soon get another chance to score goals for Nigeria again and I also believe that with time and a little more patience the Eagles will come back to winning ways under new coach Sunday Oliseh.  He has gotten all the experience we need in a coach, he has played the game before and I am really happy to see him in eagles again.”

    On the 4th of December 2014, local media in Africa and Italian sports paper misquoted Martins saying he had retired from international football.

    However Obagoal as fondly called has denied ever making such announcement.

    The former Levante striker last played for the Super Eagles in 2013 and since then he has not been considered by the former Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi.

    Martins who has 39 caps with 18 goals since he debuted for Nigeria stated that he is still open for call up from the new national team handler.

    “I never announced my retirement, in any form or anyway, it was not official at all, I was unhappy to be treated as if am not a Nigerian footballer, I have represented Nigeria, at the Nations Cup, World Cup, and I still want to play more, it’s a new eagles now, led by Oliseh, so why will I retire now, I am still young.”

    Obagoal made a scoring debut for Nigeria on May 29, 2004 against the Republic of Ireland.

    On November 17, 2007, the attacker captained his country for the first time in a friendly against Australia that marked his 19th appearance.

    His 83rd minute strike on November 12, 2009 against Kenya in Nairobi ensured the Super Eagles qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

     

  • Tanzania will be tough- Oliseh

    Tanzania will be tough- Oliseh

    Super Eagles chief coach, Sunday Oliseh has  insisted that he is not expecting the Taifa Stars of Tanzania to go down easily when they face Nigeria Super in  on September 5 in an AFCON 2017 qualifier.

    According to the former International “Tanzania is a good team, and they are defending the name of their country, just like we are also defending that of our country. Most of the players we have called to camp, are those who are hungry and ready to make names for themselves. I am very confident they would deliver when the chips are down” he concluded.

    In another development, Oliseh has issued a new programme for journalists willing to cover the team’s training starting from today.

    According to a message circulated by the Media Officer of the team, Toyin Ibitoye, henceforth, sports writers would only be allowed into the training venue for only the first 15 minutes of the training session, after which they would excuse the team to conitune their tactical training. This is to avoid any sort of distraction in trainings “this is to inform you that henceforth, only the first 15 minutes of the Super Eagles would be opened to journalists to cover. Thereafter, they would leave the training venue. However, these would always be a media interaction every Thursdays” Ibitoye said.

  • NCC Tennis League: Odizor, Okocha, Oliseh are special guests of honour

    NCC Tennis League: Odizor, Okocha, Oliseh are special guests of honour

    Nigeria’s foremost tennis icon, Nduka Odizor, is one of the three national sports icons listed as special guests of honour at the final Blue Group round robin match between Team Civil Defence and Team Tombim taking place at the Package B tennis courts of the Abuja National Stadium from 10 am today.

    The others are world renowned soccer maesto, Jay Jay Okocha and national team coach Sunday Oliseh, both of whom are very decent tennis players.

    Odizor played in all the Grand Slams and attained a career highest ranking of 52. The high point of his career was when he reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon after beating Guillermo Vilas of Argentina.

    He was thereafter named the “duke of Wimbledon” by the British press. Odizor is currently in Nigeria on a private business visit and has described the NCC Tennis League as “a huge opportunity and platform for Nigerian tennis players to make their breakthrough.”

    Okocha and Oliseh, besides playing professional soccer at the highest level were captains of the Super Eagles at some point in their national careers and have taken to tennis as a recreational past time. Team Tombim, which is hosting, is featuring some of the best emerging younger generation of tennis players with recent international exposure.

    Moses Michael, their lead player, is the highest ranked Nigerian on the ATP Tour and won the Lagos Governors Cup last year.

    He also played in eight weeks of the Egyptian satellite early this year along with team mate Christian Paul. Former national champion, Henry Atseye and Onyeka Mbanu, a CBN Senior Championship semifinalist are also in the team.

    For the women’s singles and mixed doubles, Team Tombim has Sarah Adegoke, the national No.2 seed.

    Team Civil Defence, on the other hand, parades a collection of past and current national champions. Clifford Enosoregbe and Christie Agugbom, current men’s and women’s national champions respectively, lead the team.

    They will be supported by former national champions, Shehu Lawal and Babalola Abdulmumuni as well as in-form Nonso Madueke and team captain Jonah Samuel. The match has been described as the cream of the round robin stage and is expected to attract a huge crowd.

    “This is like having five national singles championship finals – four men’s and one ladies’ – and a men’s doubles and mixed doubles finals over two days.I do not think I want to miss that ,” said Ubale Mohammed, the national junior tennis coach who is coming in from Kaduna to watch the tie. ITF Certified white badge umpires, Aisha Hirse and Duke Onojeide are the officials designated for the tie which serves off at 10 am today.