benojefua

What a weekend

2009-09-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Chelsea recorded their first loss of their season as well as Inter giving a hint that the EPL and Italian league would be tough battles this season. Barca and Real continued their dominance over spanish football at the weekend though CR9 and Messi were not on the score sheet for their respective clubs. Wolfsburg got back to winning ways beating Hannover 4-2. The pick of the weekend must have been Liverpool reject Keane who hit four goals past the impressive Burnley goalkeeper. Man city bounced back from the painful loss to the red devils last weekend to beat West ham with 25 million rated striker Tevez netting two goals in that contest. All roads lead to the champions leagues mid week - see you there!

The Threat Of The Citizens

2009-09-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

It was a fairy tale Saturday afternoon for the Citizens after they announced their intentions for this season with a well deserved win over the gunners. Ade continued his brilliant start to the season with a powerful header that left the Arsenal keeper and his old club helpless. After the first half, the citizens surprisingly had majority of the possession and that summed up the match for the gunners on the day. Despite the absence of the the hard fighting Tevez and skillful Robinho, the citizens still had enough depth to match the champions league side. It remains to be seen whether city will show consistency throughout this season and what better way to test them than next weekend clash with the red devils. Well done city, a well deserved victory.

Where is the Talent in Nigeria

2009-09-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

After watching Nigeria stumble to a 2-2 draw with Tunisia this evening, i could not help but fall back to the sweet memories of the Super Eagles of 1994. Flair and organization was the name of the game then for the Eagles and almost every position in the team boasted of immense talent from Taribo West at the heart of the back four to the flying Emmanuel Amunike. We have since then moved into an era of mediocrity and Nigeria which used to be a very entertaining team now struggles to keep me glued to my TV set. This team clearly can not win the world cup next year neither can they win the Nations cup in January. How can we get back on track? One thing is certain at the moment - Nigeria needs to rediscover its football tradition before they are confined to history.

The battle for the Scudeto

2009-08-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

"There was no doubt that Inter is the team to beat, and yesterday's game proved this. I saw a devastating team. Inter structured itself more this year and is surely well directed by a competent coach."They are the main candidates for the Scudetto and it's for this reason that once in a while I hope that some team stops them.

These were the words of Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli after watching the Derby at San Siro on Saturday night.

For me, the man of the night was Diego Milito. His fantastic technical ability was too much for the AC milan defence on more than one ocassion after he set up two goals with precise passes and scoring a penalty himself, i personally rated him as the man of the match. The performance by Inter throws up a mouth watering expectation in the champions league clash with Barcelona in the group stage and boy can i wait for that one!

Juventus meanwhile ran over Roma as they beat them 3-1 and it was all about brazilian magic as Diego and Melo put the game beyond a disapointing Roma playing at home.

It is still to early to predict the Serie A but one it appears Inter and Juventus would have a big say at the end of the season on who wins the Italian League.

My champions League Predictions

2009-08-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

Group A                                                      Group B
Bayern Munich                                             Man U
Juventus                                                       Wolfsburg

Group C                                                       Group D
AC Millan                                                      Chelsea
Marseille                                                       Athletico Madrid

Group E                                                        Group F
Liverpool                                                       Barca
Lyon                                                              Inter

Group G                                                        Group H
Sevilla                                                            Arsenal
Vfb Stuttgart                                                  Olypiakos

This is what i think will happen after the first round. How about you?

Another champions league season

2009-08-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Yes it's back again with a bang! The best competition in the world is due to start soon and as usual we have been presented with some really interesting fixtures. Can Real madrid defeat an Italian team? Milan will let us know soon enough! Chelsea have to contend with Aguero's Atletico Madrid as well as FC Porto and Samuel Eto may have a few words for Barcelona as Inter and Barcelona have found themselves in the same group. Below is a complete list of the draws that were made earlier today.

Group A	Group B
Bayern Munich	Manchester United
Juventus	CSKA Moscow
Bordeaux	Besiktas
Maccabi Haifa	VfL Wolfsburg

Group C	Group D
AC Milan	Chelsea
Real Madrid	FC Porto
Marseille	Atletico Madrid
FC Zurich	APOEL Nicosia

Group E	Group F
Liverpool	Barcelona
Lyon	Inter
Fiorentina	Dinamo Kiev
Debrecen	Rubin Kazan

Group G	Group H
Sevilla	Arsenal
Rangers	AZ Alkmaar
VfB Stuttgart	Olympiakos
Unirea Urziceni	Standard Liege

EPL weekend

2009-08-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

Defoe has continued his impressive start to the new season scoring the first goal for Tottenham is their 2-1 away victory over Westham United. Something tells me that he is going to get a lot of goals this season! Everton's disastrous start to the season continued after they lost 1-o to newcomers Burnley who had beaten united in mid-week. Burnley is having a tremendous start to the season and they play Chelsea next week. Arsenal has continued in fine form hitting four past Pompey who had no answers to their breathtaking attacking play. United meanwhile had the perfect response to the burnley defeat thrashing Wigan 5-0 with Owen getting his first goal this season. Rooney, Berbatov and Nani also recorded their names on the scoresheet. Will Owen continue to deliver, only time will tell. Chelsea broke down difficult Fulham with top scorer for last season Anelka soring his first goal of the season. Ancheloti continued to tinker with his team playing Malouda, Ballack and Lampad behind the two strikers. Can his rotation policy and diamond midfield be the answer to the elusive champions league trophy? Emmanuel Adebayor continues to live up to expectation for the citizens after he scored the only goal in their match against Wolves and carlos Tevez was the provider for that one. Liverpool will battle with Aston Villa tonight and it promises to be an interesting match as Villa are aiming to fight for a place among the top four this season.

Slavery in football???

2009-08-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

The transfers of this summer can be described as one of the most intriguing in a long time. Madrid and Man City have for one reason or another attracted many players to their clubs. Frank Ribery has indirectly stated that he wishes to be a member of the new galacticos but his club Bayern are not willing to sell hence his inflated price tag of 80 million pounds. Over in England, the same situation persists with utility center back Joleon Lescott whose club Everton turned down a transfer request from him to move to Man city. The important question that strikes me in these scenarios is why keep a player who wants to play for another club? I admit that if a player signs a contract he should be ready to stand by it but as a passionate follower of the game, i believe that when a players heart is no longer in a club, he should be allowed to move on for the good of the team, the player and football in general. I am therfore compelled to condem the unjustified price tags placed on Ribery (80 million) and Lescott (30 million) all in a bid to ensure that these players do not join the clubs that their heart desires. I understand that clubs do everything within their powers to keep their players for stability of their teams but it should be an agreement between player and club and not by club alone. At the end of the day, the loyalty of these players to their clubs will be called in to question and then who's to blame?

Man United burned by Burnley

2009-08-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

AC Milan power horse Gattuso once said he believes that a team of eleven defenders are more likely to win a match against a team of eleven attackers and Burnley may have proved that tonight . United played the football tonight and Burnley scored the goal and what a goal it was! The question now is what is the aim of football; to play nice attacking football or to win the match by any means? The season is still young however but this Man United team is surely missing Ronaldo and Tevez. Chelsea for the second time in a row last night had to come from behind in their 3-1 victory over sunderland. Is this becoming a comeback one too many for chelsea? Defoe is proving his worth as one of the most lethal strikers in the premiership as he recorded the first hat-trick of the season when his team spurs beat Hull city 5-1. There surely is more to come from him. Liverpool tonight have silenced their critics as least for the time being after thrashing stubborn stoke city 4-0. Torres, Ngog and Glenjohnson among the scorers. Thats all for tonight, see you soon.

Sunday football

2009-08-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Manchester united started off their season campaign defeating Birmingham city coutersy a lone strike from power horse Rooney. I was not expecting a different result and wonder how they could not score more goals. The real action was over at white heart lane where for the second season running, spurs took Liverpool to the cleaners. If Liverpool really mean to win the league this season, then they would have to do all it takes to improve on their performances when playing teams that are not in the top three (Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal). Spurs tactics on the day was simple and straightforward. Starve captain fantastic of the ball and Torres would be an ordinary player. They battled in the Midfield to deny Liverpool, space and time and it worked for them today. The reds missed the vision of Alonso but it's still to early to tell if loosing him would haunt them this season. Watch out for the matches on tuesday and wednesday, especially the chaimpions league qualifiers Arsenal play with Celtic and we'll come back to discuss all the action live as they happened. Till we meet again, odabo.

Opening day

2009-08-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

You could see the fan in the backgroung screaming "thank God we did not sell Drogba" and such was the story of the opening match of the new season. Chelsea had to fight back to claim a victory over hard fighting Hull city and the hero was no other than the "drog man". I wonder what happens when he goes for the African cup of nations in January. Elsewhere, Arsenal took the shine off wigan who beat villa 2-0 by embarassing Everton on home soil 6-1. Earlier, david moyes had claimed that Manchester city's pursue of defender Lescort was hampering their preparations for the beginning of the season. However, he could only blame his defenders for the diabolic defending they put up through out the match. The pressure is now on Arsenal to deliver similar results in future matches. Can they handle it, only time would tell. Adebayor announced his intentions to city fans when he opened scoring for city in their 2-0 win over Blackburn. Did Arsenal make a mistake arming a rival with a prolific goalscorer? Over in Germany, Obafemi Martins made no mistake telling the fans of wolfsburg that he s worth the 10.5 million pounds paid newcastle for his services. Don't run out of steam Martins! Thats all for today, see ya tomorrow. cheers

Football is in the air

2009-08-14T14:03:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow signals the beginning of a new season in England with some interesting matches being played. Arsenal will square up with Everton after the blues would have hosted hull city in the first match of the season. I expect chelsea to take this one especially if they are interested in wining the premiership. Arsenal however face a stubborn Everton whose aim is not to win the league but to make it difficult for teams that want to win the league and it would be interesting to see how this one turns out. Over in Germany, Obafemi Martins is set to make his debut for Wolfsburg according to his coach. We know his capabilities, lets see if he lives up to expectation! Don't forget the French league as action will take place this weekend. And oh, Everton's Yakubu is back!

Transfer funds

2009-08-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

At a time when countries all over the world are struggling with financial crises, Real madrid chose a wrong time to inflate the transfer market. In my opinion, Ronaldo is not worth more than 40 million pounds, neither is Ribery nor Ibrahimovic but because of the despiration of Real madrid and Ferguson's determination not to 'sell them a virus', the transfer market this season has suffered from "over-valuation" of players. Ironically, sir Alex has criticised madrid and man city for what they have done to the maket having himself benefitted from this inflation.What is more ridiculous is that madrid is borrowing these monies from banks instead of using their own funds. Unfortunately for the likes of wenger who like to spend cheaply, the transfer market has thus become unfair and probably football too has become unfair to them. It remains to be seen whether this dangerous trend continues next summer or clubs(especially madrid) come back to their Real senses. And oh, man city have offered messi a blank check knowing fully well that he has a buy out clause of 200 million Euros. A more disturbing question i find on my mind however is which Nigerian player is worth more than 10 million pounds at the moment?

Dick Advocaat sacked as Zenit manager

2009-08-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

Two seasons ago, dick was the hero of the russian league lifting the UEFA cup with his team zenit st petersburg playing some breath taking football. Today he is the villian cause he has lost a couple of matches. It appears to me that the most insecure job to have nowadays is to be a football coach. Except for Arsene wenger and maybe Alex Ferguson, no coach seems to be certain of his future in a club even if he is winning all the trophies at the moment. What do you think? Is this good for football or it is just part of this game filled with a lot of passion?

Another season

2009-08-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to see Chelsea slug it out with the reed devils. The devils looked blunt in their attack with the departures of Ronaldo and tevez while Chelsea looked like they are still settlng in their diamond (Christmas tree) formation. Meanwhile Bordeaux are on top of the French league with 3 points but for how long? Over in Germany, champions wolfsburg have started off from where they stopped last season winning their first match of the season. Nigerian striker chinedu obasi however denied Bayern their first win of the season. I'll be back with more tomorrow. Cheers

Football is in the air

2009-08-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today marks the beginning of a new football season in Europe. For me, i believe Chelsea will win the premiership, Inter the scudetto, Barca the La Liga, Lyon the League un, Bayern the bundersliga and hearthland the Globacom premiership What are your predictions?

Nightfall

2009-08-07T02:09:00.000-07:00

Good morning guys, i woke up this morning to remember one of the greatest poems i have even come across in my life. It is titled Nightfall in SOWETO (south west town) and i think it is written by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshal who is a south African poet who wrote in English and Zulu. It is the story of a man who is scared of the dark because of the amount of crime in his society which are carried out at night. Have you found yourself in the same situation - praying that it should be daytime forever more. Feel free to share your experiences with me. Below is a copy of the poem. Happy reading!

NIGHTFALL IN SOWETO

Nightfall comes like a dreaded disease

seeping through the pores

of a healthy body

and ravaging it beyond repair.

A murderer's hand

lurking in the shadows,

clasping the dagger

strikes down the helpless victim

I am the victim.

I am slaughtered every night in the streets

I am cornered by the fear

gnawing at my timid heart;

In my helplessness I languish.

Man has ceased to be man

Man has become beast

man has become prey.

I am the quarry to be run down

by the marauding beast let loose

by cruel nightfall from his cage of death.

Where is my refuge?

Where am I safe?

Not in my matchbox house

where I barricade myself against nightfall

I tremble at his crunching footsteps,

I quake at his deafening knock at the door

Open Up! he barks like a rabid dog.

Nightfall Nightfall!

Why were you ever created?

Why can't it be daytime?

Daytime forever more?

New guy

2009-08-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, i just got this blog and i am feeling very lucky. How about you?