RandaFooty: Everything Nigerian football, home and abroad

  Kano Pillars are a well known club in the Nigerian Football circles and have been a dominant force in the last half decade. The Kano based side are two time winners of the Glo Premier League have always been in and around the upper rung of the log consistently for the better part of half a decade. This doesn't come as any surprise to most ardent followers of the local league because Pillars have a very good structure on ground albeit from a Nigerian context. Formed in 1990 as an amalgamation of major clubs in the Kano axis like  WRECA FC, Kano Golden Stars and Bank of the North FC  to form what we know today as Kano Pillars Football Club of Kano.

Found this piece on PM news whle doing some reading and thought i should share it with you. Here is the link for the story http://pmnews.mobi/output.php?id=1540  #GoodRead While going abroad to play professional football has brought riches, fortunes and fame to the likes of Stephen Keshi, Sunday Oliseh, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha among others however, several other less-fortunate Nigerian players, it has been one ugly tale to the other in their quest to play football outside the country. For Elvis, not real name, a native of Imo State, it was a case of falling victim to dubious football agents, like many other young aspiring Nigerian footballers seeking greener pastures abroad, in desperation to play football abroad. Elvis found his way to Johannesburg, South Africa, looking forward to playing professional football in the Rainbow nation. He had beautiful dreams about his future and had relations waiting for him back home in Nigeria hoping to

Nigeria’s 2-0 loss to the Elephants of Cote D’ Ivoire in the final leg of the final round of the CHAN qualifier has been described as a good experience for the national team by Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi. “We thank God we qualified at the end of the day but my boys did not pick up till the second half and I must say to you that I am happy and this is a great experience for a young side like the home based side”. The former Stade D Abidjan libero admitted that his players were jittery at the start of the match which led to them conceding two quick goals in the first half but they woke up and gave a good account of themselves in the second. “If you say it was a game of two halves I may tend to agree with you. Because we started poorly largely due to experience and then when we came into the game they struggled against us, but that is football, we are just grateful to the NFF, Nigerians and God that we made it for the first time to the CHAN tournament”.

 Glo Premier League standings Week 22 Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Kano Pillars 22 12 4 6 29 22 7 40 2 Warri Wolves 22 10 7 5 30 18 12 37 3 Bayelsa United 22 11 3 8 26 28 -2 36 4 Enyimba 22 10 5 7 17 11 6 35 5 Kwara United 21 9 6 6 23 15 8 33 6 Dolphins 22 9 6 7 22 18 4 33 7 Heartland 22 10 1 11 28 20 8 31 8 Sunshine Stars 22 9 4 9 25 19 6 31 9 Gombe United 22 10 1 11 25 30 -5 31 10 Rangers 20 9 3 8 27 19 8 30 11 ABS F.C. 22 8 5 9 18 21 -3 29 12 Kaduna United 22 9 2 11 21 26 -5 29 13 Nembe City 22 9 2 11 21 27 -6 29 14 Nasarawa United 22 8 5 9 18 26 -8 29 15 El-Kanemi 20 8 4 8 23 21 2 28 16 3SC 21 8 3 10 25 25 0 27 17 Akwa United 22 8 3 11 24 33 -9 27 18 Sharks 22 7 5 10 12 20 -8 26 19 Lobi Stars 22 7 5 10 20 29 -9 26 20 Wikki Tourists 20 7 2 11 19 25 -6 23 (Table courtesy supersport.com)

Hard working ABS midfielder Lordson Ichull is happy that his goal was able to give his team victory and end their three-match no- win  streak in the Glo Premier League. The former Kwara Academy player, who scored the only goal in the ABS week 22 home game against Gombe United believes the win will be a catalyst to push the Ilorin-based side as the second stanza of the league gets into full gear. "It was a tough game, I thought we played well and deserved to win," "Gombe are a very good side, they gave us problems, It took us time to settle, but we eventually came through." Ichull told supersport.com. Ichull also was happy that the team won and hopes this will help to propel them to earn more points to push ABS towards the summit on the log.

  Eaglets v Niger in qualifying   As the Golden eaglets resumed camping for preparations towards the under 17-world cup latter in the year, I think we need to refresh ourselves with what happened to the team in time past. The Golden Eaglets  failed under the weight of expectations at the Confederation of African Football U-17 championship in Morocco coming second to the Baby Elephant of Côte d'Ivoire and the egg heads at the glass house and even  the coaches major concern is to overhaul the team. I asked why? Is this team that bad? Yes our expectations as  a nation and football enthusiasts is for them to win the championship but have we put it into perspective that  the team lost to the best team in that tourney? The Baby Elephants of Côte d'Ivoire are by far the best team in that tournament; going into the final  they are the only team that did not surfer any defeat, this shows how good they are, so in my opinion  they truly deserve the crown, pl