SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL GOALKEEPER SENSELESSLY KILLED

The South Africa national football goalkeeper and captain, Senzo Meyiwa (27), was senselessly killed yesterday, sunday night in his girl friend's house in Vosloorus, Johannesburg.

The South Africa Police Service said in their statement that two men entered the house and demanded for their mobile phones and valuables around 20.00 hours.

According to the police a third man of the gang waited outside the house and they said that it was a robbery case.

Senzo Meyiwa was shot at the chest by one of the men and made away with one mobile phone. The three men ran away on foot.

The player was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

His girl friend Kelly Khumalo is a musician and a celebrity in South Africa.

Senzo Meyiwa

Senzo was the goalkeeper of the Orlando Pirates football club and played on Saturday in the South African League Cup, in which they beat Ajax Cape Town 4 - 1 to advance to the semi - final.

He also kept a clean sheet in the four games the country played in the African Cup of Nations qualification games.

The African football community is still in a shock as regards to the unfortunate news.

Ephraim 'shake' Mashaba, Senzo's national coach, said tearfully in a press conference on Monday that Senzo was a kind person and he never saw him angry in the camp.

''Senzo is a very kind person. I have never seen Senzo being sad or angry in the camp.'' He added, ''Senzo is a team player, Senzo is everything.''

The chairman of his club, Irvin Khoza said that in whichever way you look at the incident, it is a sad loss to his family, his club and the country - South Africa.

''This is a sad loss whichever way you look at it, to Senzo's family, his extended family, Orlando Pirates and to the nation,'' Mr Khoza said.

Reacting to the tragic incident, the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma said in a statement on Monday:
''We mourn the death of this young footballer and team leader whose life has been taken away at the prime of his career. Words cannot express the nation's shock at this loss.''

Indeed words cannot express this kind of senseless killing. The government and the law enforcement officers must leave no stone unturned until the wicked criminals are caught and given appropriate punishment.

May Senzo's soul rest in peace and may the Almighty God give his family the hearts to bear their lose. I pray that our Lord Jesus will take care of his young family, amen.

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

NIGERIA'S FALCONS LIFTS 7th AWC TITLE

The Nigeria Women Football team popularly known as the
(The Falcons) defeated the Cameroonian women team (Les Lionesses) 2 - 0 in the final of the 9th CAF African Women Championships on Saturday at the  Sam Nujoma Stadium, Windhoek Namibia.

The two countries which had already qualified to represent Africa for the 2015 Fifa Women World Cup in Canada along with Ivory Coast began the match with each team determined to lift the trophy.

African Women Championships Champions

Both teams were very impressive throughout the tournament
with the Falcons having won all their games without dropping any point, while Les Lionesses only lost one game in the group phase.

While the Cameroonians were hoping to upset the Nigerians which were slightly billed before the match as the favourites, and win their first title since the inception of the tournament in 1991, the Nigerians were determined to win their 7th title.

Nigeria lost the title in 2012 as the defending champions, when South Africa knocked them out 1 - 0 in the semi - final in the Equatorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea won the title that year but surprisingly did not qualify to participate in this year's tournament, so they could not defend their title.

Anyway, in the Saturday finals, it was the two top Nigerian strikers, Desire Oparanozie and Assisat Oshoala, who each scored a goal in the first half of the game.

Oparanozie who was the highest goal scorer of the tournament, scored Nigeria's first goal in the 12th minute of play while her team-mate Oshoala who again won the Most Valueable Player (MVP) of the tournament doubled Nigeria's scoreline just before the interval.

Assisat Oshoala had already won the MVP award and the Golden Boot award this summer in the Fifa Women Under - 20 World Cup tournament in Canada.

The Cameroon goalkeeper, Annette Ngo Ndom who produced good saves in the match and also throughout the Championships won the Best Goalkeeper award.

Tournament's Individual Awards:

Golden Boot Award:  Desire Oparanozie (5 goals, Nigeria)

Most Valueable Player:  Assisat Oshoala (4 goals, Nigeria)

Best Goalkeeper Award: Annette Ngo Ndom

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

IT's NIGERIA Vs CAMEROON IN THE AWC FINAL

AFRICAN WOMEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The semi-finals of the African Women Championships tournament that is on-going in Namibia were played on Wednesday at the Sam Nujoma stadium in Windhoek.

In the first semi - final of the day, the six time champions, Nigerian ladies nicknamed the Falcons laced their boots against their arch rivals Bayana-Bayana of South Africa.

Assisat Oshoala with her Fifa Awards

Before the match the Falcons said that they want to revenge losing 1 - 0 to South Africa in the semi-final of the 2012 tournament.

The Falcons won the match 2 - 1 through a brace from Assisat Oshoala in either of the halfs.

Assisat who turned 20 years old last week, also played in the Fifa Women Under-20 World Cup in Canada this summer, where she won the Golden boot and the MVP of the tournament.

In the second semi - final game Cameroon won Ivory Coast 2 - 1 and will meet Nigeria in the final on Saturday.

The three top teams in this tournament will represent Africa in the Fifa Women World Cup in Canada next year.

On Saturday, the third country to join Nigeria and Cameroon will be decided in the third place match between South Africa and Ivory Coast.
Read also, Africanfootie.blogspot.com

AWC SEMI - FINAL, NIGERIA Vs SOUTH AFRICA, CAMEROON Vs I. COAST

The semi - finals of the 2014 African Women Championships which is currently being held in Namibia, will be played Wednesday, the 22nd of October.

In the first semi - final of the day, the six time champions of the tournament, Nigeria will be meeting South Africa at the Sam Nujoma Stadium at the 17.00 hours.

Fans from Ghana

In the second semi - final Cameroon will be locking horns with Ivory Coast in the same Sam Nujoma Stadium at the 20.00 hours.

Both games will be very interesting to watch, because all the four teams are capable at this juncture of the tournament, to win and get to the final.

Since the inception of the tournament in 1991, only two countries have shared the titles. Nigeria has won it a record six times and Equatorial Guinea has won it twice.

The other three teams in the semi -finals are dying, to taste the euphoria of lifting the trophy, for the first time, while the Nigerian ladies which won the title last in 2010, said that they want to regain the title, which is currently held by Equatorial Guinea.

It is going to be a very interesting semi - finals, because all the four teams are hungry to win the title.

''Each of the teams is capable of winning and going to the final. You cannot predict the outcome of the games at this stage,'' the Ghanaian midfielder, Elizabeth Cudjoe said.

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

NIGERIA'S INTERIM COACH, KESHI IS SACKED

Nigeria interim coach, Stephen Keshi has been sacked by the newly elected Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). This action came after a series of poor performances of the national football team nicknamed - the Super Eagles, during the ongoing African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The Super Eagles is the defending champions of the tournament and is at a great risk of not qualifying for the 2015 tournament in Morocco. The former coach of the team, Shaibu Amodu has been appointed to take charge of the remaining two games next month.

Nigeria is in the 3rd position on the Group A table with 4 points after 4 games. South Africa is on top of the table with 8 points followed by Congo with 7 points.

The team needs to win South Africa at home and Congo in away to even stand a chance of qualifying. This is a herculean task to say the least, but it is not impossible.

The spokesman of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ademola Olajire, told the media that, ''The Executive Committee took a unanimous decision to let Keshi go and Shaibu Amodu to take charge for the next two matches.''

Amodu will be assisted in this task by Gbenga Ogunbote and Salisu Yusuf and Aloysius Agu, while Garba Lawal will serve as the Co-ordinator of the team. Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

The 2015 AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS QUALIFIERS (15/10/14)

The second leg of the double header of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualification games were played today all over the continent.
Some of the big footballing nations are doing very well, while some are surprisingly doing very badly, to the amazement of many fans.

Among the countries that are doing well in the qualifications series are Cameroon, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana to mention be a few. While some countries are not doing well such as the defending champions - Nigeria which has only 4 points from 4 games.

The surprise result of today was Ivory Coast losing at home to DRC.
Anyway, the following are the results of today's games, that were played in different cities of the African continent.

Group  A                                       Group  B

Nigeria           3  -  1   Sudan           Algeria   3  -  0   Malawi
South Africa   0  -  0   Congo          Mali       2  -  3   Ethiopia

Group  C                                       Group  D

Angola           4  -  0   Lesotho     Cameroon  2  -  0  Sierra Leone
Burkina Faso  1  -  1   Gabon       I. Coast      3  -  4   DRC

Group  E                                       Group  F

Togo          1  -  0   Uganda        Cape Verde  1  -  0  Mozambique
Ghana        3  -  1   Guinea           Zambia       3  -  0  Niger

Group   G

Egypt        2  -  0    Botswana
Tunisia      1  -  0    Senegal

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

THE 9th AFRICAN WOMEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 9th African Women Championship began over the weekend in Namibia. There are eight countries participating in the two week event, from 11th to 25th October. 

The teams were divided into two groups of A and B with each group containing four teams and they will play the first phase of the tournament in a round robin.

The matches are being played in two stadiums namely - the Sam Nujoma Stadium, Windhoek, and the Independence Stadium Windhoek. In group A, are Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Zambia and the hosts Namibia. In group B, are Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Algeria.

Nigerian women celebrating

On the opening day of the tournament, Saturday the 11th, in group A, the host nation - Namibia beat Zambia by 2 - 0 in the Sam Nujoma Stadium. 

Later in the same stadium, the six time winners of the tournament, Nigeria took on Ivory Coast, which were making their first appearance in the biannual female soccer fiesta, and defeated them  4 - 2.

Then in group B on Sunday the 12th, at the Independence Stadium, Cameroon defeated South Africa with a late lone goal to earn the full three points. While in the second match after that, Algeria beat Ghana with a lone goal also.

 

On the group A table, Nigeria which is aiming to regain the trophy, is on top of the table while Namibia is in the second position, followed by Ivory Coast and then Zambia.

On the group B table, Algeria is on top although it has the same position as Cameroon. They are then followed by Ghana and South Africa which lost their first games with same scoreline.

Group    A

Nigeria       4  -  2    Ivory Coast

Namibia     2  -  0    Zambia

Group    B

Cameroon   1  -  0   South Africa

Algeria        1  -  0   Ghana

On Tuesday, the 14th at the 17.00 hours, in group A, Zambia will lock horns with Nigeria, while at the 20.00 hours later at the same Sam Nujoma Stadium, Ivory Coast will take on Namibia.

Then on Wednesday, the 15th at the 17.00 hours, in group B, Cameroon will play against Algeria, while Ghana will face South Africa, at the Independence Stadium.

The defending champions of the tournament, Equatorial Guinea did not qualify to take part. Ivory Coast knocked them out in the qualifiers series. Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS QUALIFIERS RESULTS (10/10/14 & 11/10/14)

The 2015 African Cup of Nations qualification matches were played this weekend all over the continent. The matches were the first leg of the double encounters and the second leg will be played by all the teams on Wednesday next week.

There were few surprises in this weekend games, Nigeria, the defending champions suffered yet again another defeat in Khartoum 1 - 0, after losing at home to Congo in their first match 3 -2.

Dedicated Fans

The other surprising result was in the match between Cameroon and Sierra  Leone, the game ended in a goalless draw. Cameroon in their last match defeated Ivory Coast 4 - 1, so playing goalless today was a bit surprising but hey that is football. It is a game that nobody can predict its outcome with 100% accuracy every time. 

Without much ado the following are the whole results of this weekend encounters.

Group A                                               Group  B

Congo      0  -  2   South Africa            Malawi   0  -   Algeria
Sudan      1  -  0    Nigeria                    Ethiopia  0  -   Mali 

Group  C                                             Group  D

Lesotho    0  -  0    Angola                   DRC       1  -  2  I. Coast
Gabon      2  -  0    Burkina Faso         S. Leone  0  -  0  Cameroon

Group  E                                            Group   F

Uganda   0  -   1    Togo                 Mozambique 2  -  0   C. Verde
Guinea    1   -  1    Ghana               Niger            0  -  0   Zambia

Group   G 

Botswana    0   -   2    Egypt
Senegal       0   -   0    Tunisia 

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com            

WEEKEND AFCON QUALIFIERS FIXTURES (11/10/14)

This is a follow up to the first article that I have already uploaded. The Saturday fixtures are as follows:

Saturday, 11/10/14

Group  A

Congo        Vs   South Africa   (15.30) Pointe - Noire Stadium

Sudan         Vs   Nigeria         (20.00)  Khartoum Stadium

Group   B

Malawi        Vs    Algeria    (14.30)   Kamuzu Stadium Blantyre

Ethiopia       Vs    Mali      (16.00)   Addis Ababa Stadium

Group   C

Gabon      Vs   Burkina Faso   (18.30) Libreville Stadium

Group  D

Sierra Leone  Vs   Cameroon   (15.00)  Ahmadou Ahidjo Stade

DRC         Vs    Ivory Coast   (15.30)    Kinshasa

Group  E 

Uganda      Vs   Togo     (16.00)  Mandela National Stadium

Guinea    Vs   Ghana  (20.00) Complex Mohammed Casablanca

Group  F

Mozambique  Vs  Cape Verde  (15.30) Estadio Da Machava

Niger    Vs   Zambia  (16.00)  Stade General S.K Niamey

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

WEEKEND AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS QUALIFIERS (10/10/14 & 11/10/14)

This weekend another round of the African Cup of Nations will be played all over the cities of the African continent for the qualification of the 2015 ACN tournament in Morocco.

Although only two games have been played by each participating countries, already some countries are feeling the pressure of qualifi-
cation as a result of their poor performances and results in the previous matches. 

Among the big footballing nations of the continent, two have so far performed woefully, the defending champions Nigeria have put themselves under serious pressure by losing their first match against visiting Congo 3 - 2 and drawing 0 - 0 against South Africa. 

Nigeria is 3rd on the Group A table with just a point, while Egypt the tournament most successful winners have lost all their two games against Senegal 2 - 0 and at home 1 - 0 against Tunisia.

So both Nigeria and Egypt need to play very well and win this weekend and in the return leg on Wednesday next week to give themselves a fighting chances to qualify. 

While Egypt and Nigeria have performed poorly in the qualification so far the other big footballing nations are doing alright. Algeria, Cameroon and Tunisia have 6 points while Ghana and South Africa have 4 points. Ivory Coast has 3 points.

Burkina Faso continued their fine form from the last tournament of 2013 where they reached the final and only lost by a lone goal to the eventual champions - Nigeria. Burkina Faso so far has won their two matches, so earned the maximum 6 points.

The team that has done surprisingly well in this qualifications series is Congo which has won the 6 points and is on top of the Group A table. Cape Verde has done really well by maintaining their successful progression in the world of football in the last couple of years since their emergence. They have 6 points also so far. Uganda also has done well earning 4 points.

Anyway, without much ado the following is the fixture for this weekend encounters in the continent.

Friday, (10/10/14)

Group  G

Botswana      Vs      Egypt    (18.30) National Stadium Gaborone

Group  C

Lesotho         Vs     Angola    (19.30)  Setsoto Stadium Maseru


Group   G

Senegal       Vs   Tunisia  (20.00)  Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor

Read also: Melvinsports.blogspot.com

Note: I am busy with tomorrow's fixtures and will upload it shortly.
          Please check back later for it. Thanks.