Onochie Anibeze
20 October 2008
Cairo — What an irony! While Dynamous of Zimbabwe were being pummeled 4-0 by Cotton Spots of Cameroun to ensure their ouster from the Champions League, two Angolans were in the art that marked the end of the road for the top Nigerian side, Enyimba.
TACKLE - Egyptian Al-Ahly's Wael Gomaa (r) fights for the ball with Nigerian Enyimba's Steve Worgu (l) during their semi-final second leg football match for the African Football Confederation (CAF) Champions League in Cairo on October 18, 2008. Ahly won the match 1-0. PHOTO: AFP.
The Cairo National Stadium was all red when Enyimba arrived for the Champions League semi-final match Saturday.
Ahly fans had taken over the seats, chanting, singing and cheering even when the game had not started. They wore Ahly red colours. It was quite a scene that made every Nigerian at the stadium admits that our football culture is years behind what obtains in other football countries inspite of the noise we make about Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, Barcelona etc.
Man U could not have played in an empty stadium if they played in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Rwanda etc. It happened in Abuja and made nonsense of those who claimed to be more European than Europeans in their loud and sometimes, obscene support for foreign football while they do nothing to promote theirs.
The fans happily paid over equivalent of N2000 for popular side and the 80,000 capacity stadium was almost sold out.
They cheered loudly and that probably gave their team a seeming advantage when the game started. Buoyed by their support, Ahly made good moves attacking Enyimba. But the marking of the Nigerians and their early approach to the game was good. They contained Ahly, played on the counter as they should. The cheering and noise continued and while the organisational play of Enyimba was great, some players appeared jittery, probably due to the electric atmosphere. Two deadly moves by Ahly nearly resulted into goals not out of their creative play but due to wrong passes direct to them by Enyimba players.
This remained the greatest undoing of Enyimba as a wrong pass to an opponent resulted into corner in the 26th minute. Sebastio Gilberto, an Angoalan international stepped forward to take the corner. He hit it well to the first post and his compatriot, Flavio Da Silva Amado out paced Uga Opara to head in, beating the keeper and the man who covered that angle. It appeared a give-away goal. And that remained the only goal of the day although there were three other close chances for Ahly and two for Enyimba.
Steve Worgu who was besieged by Egyptian fans on arrival made many runs, many of them not really direct to opponents goal. If he was more direct, that could have added pressure on the opponents. But Ezenwa Otorogu who paired with him in the striking role was not having a good game and that apparently reduced the chances of Enyimba and also affected Worgu's direct play.
Chinedu Ezimorah's slow pace from the right back slowed the pace from that position and in the first half Enyimba had only one attempt at goal even as they tried to contain the home team. Cletus Itodo and Daddy Bazuaye came in at half time and Enyimba appeared more purposeful. But finding the net behind Ahly remained a nightmare till referee's final whistle. Mohammed Sunga, the centre referee from Uganda had a good game and may get more assignments from the continent's soccer governing body.
"We did our best. It is painful to lose this way but what can one do when you have done your best and it ends this way. Ending among the first four in the continent is worth celebrating and I think Nigerians appreciate what we are doing. Going by the result of Cotton Sport, we are third in place in the competition which more than 100 clubs started. We will go home and continue our stride to get better. Watch out for us as far as football in the continent is concerned," Agwu said.
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