Iwobi put up a splendid display as Everton secured a crucial 1-0 win over Manchester United to boost their chances of beating relegation

Super Eagles stars hoping to escape relegation from the Premier League enjoyed mixed fortunes in the games played on Saturday.

In the day’s early kickoff Alex IWOBI put up a splendid display as Everton secured a crucial 1-0 win over Manchester United to boost their chances of beating the drop.

Iwobi was in action for all 90 minutes in the keenly contested encounter; causing the United defenders headaches with his lively off-the-ball runs and deft touches.

The 25-year-old who has been enjoying a new lease of life under Frank Lampard as manager has made 20 league appearances for the Toffees this season with two goals to his name.

Though Iwobi was highly commended for his ‘beast mode’ display, it was Anthony Gordon who scored the decisive goal for Everton in the 27th minute. Gordon’s shot took a deflection off Harry Maguire’s back to wrong-foot David de Gea.

With Saturday’s win, Frank Lampard’s side re-established a four-point gap on Burnley in the final relegation position ahead of the weekend’s remaining games. United on the other hand suffered another blow to their hopes of a top-four finish.

But while Iwobi is pushing away from the relegation zone, it is beginning to look like a lost cause for the Nigeria contingent at Watford.

Despite playing at their Vicarage Road home ground on Saturday, the Hornets were hammered 3-0 by Leeds United who themselves are battling to ensure their Premier League status remains beyond this season. This was Watford’s ninth consecutive home loss in the Premier League.

Emmanuel Dennis came on as a 39th-minute substitute while Watford was trailing just by the goal scored by Raphinha in the 21st minute.

The Nigerian who has scored just once in the last five Premier League before this weekend fired blanks again as Watford ended up conceding two more goals in the second half to lose 3-0.

With this latest result, Watford have lost 21 out of their 31 league games this season.

Top-four run

Russian and Belarusian runners will not be allowed to take part in this year’s Boston Marathon because of the invasion of Ukraine, organisers said on Wednesday.

Russian and Belarusian athletes living in their respective countries are barred from the April 18 race, the Boston Athletic Association said.

However, Russian and Belarusian citizens not residing in either country would be allowed to take part, but not under the flag of either nation.

“Like so many around the world we are horrified and outraged by what we have seen and learned from the reporting in Ukraine,” Boston Athletic Association chief executive Tom Grilk said.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.509.0_en.html#goog_290815511

“We believe that running is a global sport, and as such, we must do what we can to show our support to the people of Ukraine,” Grilk added in a statement.

The statement did not say how many Russian or Belarusian athletes had entered this year’s showpiece.

The Boston Marathon, one of the world’s major marathons, is returning to its traditional April slot this year after disruption caused by the pandemic.

The race was cancelled in 2020 and then held in October in 2021 with a smaller-than-usual field.

In 2019, the last Boston Marathon not affected by the pandemic, 59 runners in a field of more than 30,000 were from Russia and Belarus.

Russia has been increasingly isolated by the sporting world following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA have suspended Russia from all international competitions, including the World Cup, while organisations such as Formula One have cancelled events in Russia.

The search for the next Super Eagles coach on a permanent basis has kick-started with officials of the Nigeria Football Federation reportedly preferring a foreigner to lead the team,

Rohr was appointed as Eagles coach in 2016 and was in charge of the team for five years, four months and 10 days.

NFF’s Technical Director, Austin Eguavoen, was appointed last December as Gernot Rohr’s replacement on an interim basis, after the federation parted ways with the Franco-German following a string of uninspiring performances.

But Eguavoen failed when it mattered most as the Eagles could not qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup after they were held 1-1 in Abuja by archrivals Ghana, which saw the West Africans qualify on the away goal rule.

The previous fixture at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi ended goalless.

Eguavoen recorded four wins, two draws and a defeat during his three months spell at the helm.

There have been reports in the media that the federation is already lining up a possible replacement for the former national team captain, who coached the Eagles to a bronze medal finish at the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations, with the 2023 AFCON qualifiers kicking off in just two months.

The report claims Herve Renard and Jose Peseiro are some of the foreign coaches penciled down for the position, while former Eagles captain and coach Sunday Oliseh is also being considered for the job six years after leaving the post.

The report added that the sports ministry wants the ex-Ajax and Juventus star back as head coach as he is available for free and more affordable than other foreign coaches.

Former Zambia coach Renard, currently the head coach of Saudi Arabia, is the first coach to win the African title with two different nations when he led Zambia to glory in 2012 and succeeded again with Ivory Coast three years after.

The Frenchman qualified Saudi Arabia for the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar, and lost only twice (against Japan and Jamaica) in the 23 matches in charge of the Green Falcons.

In January, the NFF confirmed that Portuguese Peseiro will take charge of the Eagles after the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations but talks broke down due to financial clauses in the proposed contract.

“After several weeks of negotiations, during which there was news from the Nigerian Football Federation, that I would be the coach of their team, from the end of AFCON 2021, a fact that I never confirmed, and these did not materialize due to disagreement regarding contrarian clauses and financial matters,” the 61-year-old Peseiro wrote on Instagram.

He had previously worked at Panathinaikos, Real Madrid, Sporting Lisbon, Al Ahly, Braga and most recently as the Venezuela national team coach – a position he left in August 2021 over unpaid salary

President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has revealed he will not be running for the position for a third term due to increased pressure from his family.

Pinnick became the first NFF supremo to serve two terms in office after being re-elected in 2018 and with another election just around the corner, the FIFA Council member has revealed that pressure from his family and loved ones have led to his decision to step down.

The decision may also be connected to increased pressure from football fans and stakeholders across the country who have clamoured for his resignation after the country’s failure to pick a ticket for Qatar 2022 World Cup.

The failure to qualify for the global football showpiece on March 29 saw fans encroach the pitch of the refurbished Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja after the blast of the final whistle destroying the grass on the pitch as well as the technical area as they publicly showed their displeasure with the result.

The federation has apologised to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, as well as Nigerians across the world for their failure to qualify.

Pinnick who revealed that his position with the NFF has left a strain also stated that he did the best within his ability to see the Eagles qualify for the World Cup.

“At the moment, my family is completely against it. I’ve done my best, posterity will judge whether I did my best or I was good enough or not. I’m still an integral part of football as a member of the FIFA Council, I’m not a peripheral member, I’m also a member of the CAF Emergency Committee, I’m also the vice president of the AFCON committee, so I’m still very deep in football but I believe there’s time for everything,” Pinnick told TopSport on Top Radio on Friday.

“It was a very tough decision but my wife, kids and extended family believe that I have put in so much and it’s a job that is thankless. We did everything we should have done, especially in the last game against Ghana.

“We did everything we were supposed to do but at the end of the day, we are not meant to go on the pitch and play but we did everything in terms of motivation. The players were told in clear terms that if we won the game that FIFA was going to give us some sum of money and the players would take about 35 per cent of the money which is about $3.5m, so what else should the NFF have done?”

It can be recalled that Pinnick had in 2020 stated that he would not be vying for the position but later had a change of mind.

Former world number one Serena Williams hinted on Thursday that she could make her long-awaited return at Wimbledon in June, exactly a year since she last played on the tour at the same Grand Slam.

Williams, 40, limped out of last year’s first-round match at Wimbledon in tears due to a leg injury.

She also skipped the Olympics in Tokyo and the U.S. Open in 2021 due to the hamstring injury, as well as the Australian Open earlier this year.

On an Instagram story with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Serena said: “We’ve been talking about my comeback and he’s been hyping me up and getting me ready for Wimbledon. Can’t wait!”

When Rodgers asked her about a potential comeback at the U.S. Open, she added: “Wimbledon’s before the U.S. Open, I’ve got to play Wimbledon first. Exciting!”

Wimbledon runs from June 27-July 10. Williams has won the grasscourt major seven times, with her last success coming in 2016.

Earlier on Thursday, her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou revealed he was now working full-time with twice Grand Slam champion Simona Halep after speaking to Williams.

Williams, who has been on the hunt for an elusive 24th major since winning her last Grand Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open, has slipped to 246th in the women’s rankings.

She reached the final in four Grand Slams since giving birth to daughter Olympia in 2017 but lost in straight sets on each occasion.

On account of its official commissioning on 8 April 2003, the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja is 19 years old this Friday. Built as the first of its kind in Nigeria, it is all-covered and with individual seats.

It has however have a colouration of certain jinx surrounding it. Only twice had champions  emerged for Nigeria at the beautiful arena which stands as the easily the first major edifice in the city of Abuja after the crossing of the city gate from the airport.

he only occasion international champions were crowned at the arena were when the Super Falcons won the gold medal match of the 2003 African games, and Enyimba emerging victorious after penalty shoot-out in the 2004 CAF Chmapions League.

Outside those two instances it has been catalogue of major misses by Nigerian teams. Sports Village Square recalls five instances:

Football final of 2003 All Africa Games

Despite being rated as an overwhelming  favourites to pick the gold medal of the football event event of the All Africa Games as it had happened on home soil 30 years earlier in Lagos,  the Nigerian team surprisingly crumbled 2-0 against Cameroon at the Abuja stadium on 16 October 2003.

The gold medal has since been elusive to Nigeria which again lost at the final match of 2019 games in Rabat, Morocco.

World Cup dreams evaporate in Abuja, despite massive win

On 8 October 2005, Nigeria beat Zimbabwe 5-1 in their last match for the 2006 World Cup.

 But the massive win proved a pyrrhic victory as result elsewhere meant Nigeria had missed the flight to Germany 2006.

Angola beat Rwanda 1-0 away from home to peak the ticket.

Swiss sensation as Golden Eaglets lose U17 World Cup

With elimination of big teams such as Germany and Brazil, the Nigerian Golden Eaglets, then three time world champions were overwhelming favourites to beat unrated Switzerland at the final match of the 2009 U17 World Cup.

Result did not match expectation in the 16 November 2009 match in Abuja. Switzerland won 1-0 to claim their only title till date.

At the time Nigeria lost in Abuja to Switzerland, the thoughts were that host nations of the tournaments were jinxed as no past host nation had won.

But such claims have since been dismissed as Mexico as the hosts of the next edition in 2011 won. So also, Brazil as 2019 hosts also won.

Last minute goal by Guinea denies Nigeria AFCON qualification

On the sixth anniversary of missing the qualification for the Germany 2006 World Cup, another qualification miss was recorded in Abuja by Nigeria on 8 October 2011.

Ignorantly thinking they need a two-goal margin to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations and while leading 2-1 against Guinea, the Super Eagles went for all-outfield player offensive in the closing minute of the added time.

Alas! The Guineans in a counter attack slotted in an equaliser that ended the international goalkeeping career of Dele Aiyenugba. But for the equaliser, Nigeria could have still qualified as one of the lucky second-placed teams.

The equaliser gave an already eliminated Sudan an entrance through the back doors.

Troubled Black Stars get succour in Abuja

When the Black Stars blacked out Nigeria’s qualifying hopes for the 2022 World Cup in Abuja, it came on the sixth anniversary of Nigeria missing out in the qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations .

Egypt had on 29 March 2016 beating Nigeria 1-0 to eliminate the country from the continental tournament.

The road to Cote d’Ivoire 2023 will be mapped out on Tuesday 19 April when the draw for the qualifying series will be conducted.

The draw will involve the six winners of the preliminary competition joining the 48 others to each play six group matches where 24 finalists will emerge. The international window of June will be used for four of the six group matches by each team.

The implication is that the Super Eagles will have four qualifying matches in June against the opponents that will emerge at the 19 April draw. 

The windows opened for the first two match days are 30 May to 14 June 2022. Match days three and four will run from 19 to 27 September.  The last two matches will hold from 20 to 28 March 2023.

Meanwhile, according to the yardstick for the draw, Nigeria along with the top 11 ranked team will be seeded in Pot 1.

The other teams in the pot are the five African flag-bearers at Qatar 2022 as well as Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and DR Congo.

Another draw is also in the offing for the final tournament of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations to be held in July in Morocco. The draw for the final tournament will be held on 25 April 2022.  

Waddie Jary, Tunisia Football Federation president and CAF Executive Committee member

In the original schedule for the group stage of the qualifying tournament  for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the series were planned to end this September after busy four-match days proposed for June while match day five and six were to hold in September.

Then in March next year, the qualifying series for the 2025 was to commence.

But all that changed following the protest by Tunisia who threatened to boycott the qualifying tournament to concentrate on preparation for the Qatar World Cup which holds in November and ends in December.

CAF’s initial programme was to see that the Afcon 2023 qualifiers emerge before the World Cup and the tournament was to also serve as preparatory for the five African teams to the 2022 World Cup.

But Tunisian Football Federation president, Waddie Jary would not have that and threatened his team’s boycott. He is also a member of CAF Executive committee.

“If Caf doesn’t change the dates, then it becomes a problem,” Jary reportedly told Tunisian TV station Attessia.

“It becomes a question of whether we participate in this Afcon or not, if it will distract from our World Cup preparations.

“At that point, the question will arise: ‘Will we sacrifice the 2023 Afcon or not?’. I hope it doesn’t get that far and we come to find a solution with Caf.”

It was also understood that his Moroccan counterpart, Fouzi Lekjaa, suggested that their matches in the qualifying series should be postponed.

As a compromise, CAF decided to move two of the four initial matches in June to September while the original two matches for September were moved to March next year, the period slated for the start of qualifying tournament for 2025 which would have started even before the final tournament of 2023.

 WBA, IBF & WBO Heavyweight Titles – Anthony Joshua v Oleksandr Usyk – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain – September 25, 2021 Oleksandr Usyk in action against Anthony Joshua Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge/File Photo

Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said the United Kingdom is among the venues being considered to host the Briton’s rematch against Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, adding that the fight will take place in June or July.

World heavyweight champion Usyk beat Joshua in front of a sell-out crowd in London in September last year to claim the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, Usyk returned to his homeland to join a territorial defence battalion, raising doubts about a rematch with Joshua.

However, Usyk said last month that he had begun preparations for the bout, with the Ukrainian’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk telling Sky Sports that Saudi Arabia was a potential venue. 

“We’re in final negotiations for a couple of sites for either the end of June or early-to-mid-July,” Hearn told British media on Friday. “I reckon within two weeks we’ll have some news in terms of where that’s going to be.

“An option is in the UK. The difference is, we don’t really need negotiations with a venue in the UK, we just book it.”

The winner could be in line for a unification bout with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury of Britain.

Lewis Hamilton says the problems with his Mercedes car are so bad that he is not enjoying driving it this season.

The seven-time world champion qualified fifth for the Australian Grand Prix and would have been seventh had it not been for problems affecting Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton was a second slower than Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s pole position time and said the “porpoising” – a rapid bouncing at high speeds – that has afflicted his car since the start of the season was “really the worst characteristic I have experienced in a car and we can’t get rid of it at the moment”.

The 37-year-old, who returned to F1 this season hoping to avenge the controversial loss of the world title at last year’s final race, admitted winning was “a long way off”.

“We’re a second off, a pretty huge gap,” he said. “I enjoy the role of working with the team. I don’t enjoy driving the car but I enjoy the collaboration of working with the guys, knowing that there is a steep hill to climb and just remaining hopeful we will get there.”

And he admitted there was no solution on the horizon for Mercedes’ problems.

“It takes a long time to make stuff but there is nothing particularly exciting coming at the moment,” he said. “I wish I could be optimistic and say the next one we have something better coming, but at the moment we don’t.”

Mercedes at a loss

Mercedes believe that fixing the “porpoising”, which is caused by a disruption in the airflow under the car, would be the single biggest step they could make towards recovering competitiveness this year.

But their quandary is that the Ferrari also exhibits the problem and that remains a far faster car.

“I don’t understand it and I don’t think anyone does,” Hamilton said. “I wish ours was the same, but it’s not.”

Team boss Toto Wolff admitted that Mercedes’ problems were bigger than one single issue.

“Our bouncing is worse in the sense that we are carrying it into the corners, into the high speeds so we see where we are losing the performance,” he said. “On sector one, we are very competitive when you look at the overlay, and sector two we are competitive. Sector three, through Nine and 10 we are losing all our margins, almost a second through a couple of corners.

“Is curing the bouncing the miraculous unlocking of a second? No, for sure not. But there are many other little improvements we can make on weight and a few others where we can optimise, and we just need to chip away at the small gains while understanding the car.

“I’m optimistic we are going to get there eventually. Whether it is is in two races or five or by the end of the season, I don’t know.”

Wolff’s representation of Mercedes’ pace relative to Leclerc was not quite accurate – Hamilton was 0.235secs slower than Leclerc in the first third of the lap and 0.214secs off in the second. But it is true that he lost the majority of his time – 0.468secs – in sector three, which starts with the fast chicane of Turns Nine and 10.

Hamilton said the phenomenon was so bad in Friday practice in Melbourne that he nearly lost control of the car on the curving straight before Turn Nine.

“We had so much porpoising down that straight that I had, like, an oversteer moment in the middle of the straight,” Hamilton said. “It was like, ‘This is ridiculous.’ But it wasn’t the case today.”

Mercedes had not fixed the problem – they had benefited from a decision by race director Niels Wittich to remove the controversial fourth DRS overtaking zone on the flat-out but curving run from Turn Six. This meant that the DRS – which reduces drag and downforce – could not be used on that section any more, so speeds there were reduced and the cars more planted.

Hamilton said it was “good” that the DRS sector had been removed – although team-mate George Russell, who qualified a place and just over 0.1secs behind, said he disagreed with the decision and that removing the DRS there made his porpoising worse.

Slightly different set-ups aside – Russell said his was “more aggressive” – the opposing views of the Mercedes drivers on that topic seemed an appropriate reflection of just how lost the team are when it comes to the performance of their car.

Why was the DRS sector removed?

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen also said he did not agree with the decision, saying: “There was only one team who complained about it and it got removed this morning so I don’t really understand.”

Verstappen was referring to the fact that Alonso had been by far the most vocal driver on the safety risk of running DRS through that sector in the drivers’ briefing on Friday evening.

Alonso, as it happens, was a surprise contender for pole in an Alpine much-improved by some small upgrades and the team unlocking some of its secrets. The technical failure that caused him to crash on his first lap in final qualifying – which the team have not publicly revealed – was a bitter blow for a man who, as Alonso pointed out, has waited nine years since he last had a competitive grand prix car.

Anyway, back to the DRS. After Alonso had made his point, Wittich asked all the teams for their views on the matter. Five of them – half – replied that they would prefer for it to be removed, so Wittich preferred to err on the side of caution.

The situation in which Mercedes find themselves is made worse by the fact that the porpoising problem cannot be solved in typical fashion, as it does not show up in either CFD simulations or in the wind tunnel.

The reason for the phenomenon is known – somehow, the airflow under the car is “stalling” at a certain car speed. This causes a loss of downforce, which lifts the car up, before the airflow reattaches, sucks the car down and then the problem repeats.

Experts who have experience of porpoising from F1 40 years ago – the last time cars used the aerodynamic philosophy that has been reintroduced with this season’s rule changes – believe the problem is likely to be rooted in one of two areas.

It is thought the cause is likely to be either the floor flexing somehow, somewhere, or it touching the track and then lifting again. Or both. The difficulty is working out where and how this is happening.

Wolff said: “I believe we will get it nailed. Many other teams, like Ferrari, still have some bouncing but they have done many other things right that we didn’t perform very well. The same with Red Bull – their car got quick in testing in one day by bringing the [bodywork] upgrade [at the end of the final pre-season test].

“This car is difficult to correlate because you can only move the car with a certain frequency in the wind tunnel and on track it does something completely different.

“It is a new way of analysing aero data, a new way of correlation between the simulations and the real world which needs to be understood. We have the tools and the people to understand it but we haven’t found it yet.”

Driver underpants and jewellery in focus

The DRS on the back straight took up a very small amount of discussion in a drivers’ briefing that ran to two hours, the majority of which was taken up by the reminder the FIA gave before the weekend that the wearing of jewellery and non-compliant underwear in a racing car was forbidden.

Inevitably, given Hamilton’s visible nose stud, this was immediately perceived by some to be targeted at him. But that was not the case. The nose stud is a minor concern for the governing body.

Far more worrying for the FIA was the fact that they had discovered – it is not quite clear how – that some drivers are racing in normal underwear, which is not fireproof and is therefore a risk to them, as it could melt in a fire. And the same goes for a watch with a plastic strap. Metal jewellery, of course, is a heat conductor and would risk worsening injuries in a fire.

Hamilton said “it was the longest driver briefing of my life” – a point true, it seems, both in a literal and figurative sense.

“I don’t really understand the small things they’re picking up, like the underwear,” he said. “Are we really talking about that sort of thing? Anyway, we move on.”

More of a concern for Hamilton was that the meeting was held with what he perceived to be a disregard for the risks of Covid – catching which is still a major risk for drivers as it means they have to miss races, as Sebastian Vettel has already had to do this year.

“No-one in the drivers’ briefing was wearing masks,” Hamilton said. “Some of the drivers were. Most of the FIA weren’t, which for me was uncomfortable.”