Last weekend, the 2016/2017 Nigeria Professional Football League season started across the various venues in the country with many expectations and permutations on how the league would fare this season and the expectations on how teams would fare in a season that has been dubbed by pundits as giving a push for the best at the end of the race.
The preparations have been high for most of the teams as they engaged in pre-season friendlies usually associated with much hypes by the various teams but the bottom line stares each team clearly when the real crunch begins in a 38 week journey on who will be crowned champions.
The journey to the top in the Nigerian league has always be characterized by certain elements and the dynamics of some features have thrown up favourites as witnessed last season where Rangers Football Club bounced back to the continent after more than three decades in the cold.
The league opener between Kano Pillars and Ifeanyi Ubah who may have tried to exploit their seeming over bearing influence in the proceedings again this year following a spate of controversial decisions trailing their league games last season, once again reared its ugly head as the game was abandoned by the Nnewi side on the orders of the Team Manager of the club who has been axed for four games by the club management for his unprofessional conduct.
That however, did not take the shine away from the scheduled games that fans trooped out to watch across the venue the following day, Sunday, January 15, 2017 as the tussle for leadership on the log has seen early leaders as teams won away with early indications that no team will be a push over.
For our darling Akwa United Football Club, it was not a rosy beginning as the team fell 3-1 against ABS Football Club in Ilorin, Kwara State. Against all odds, that is football for you especially when the stakes are high from a team which we have followed so closely in all her pre-season build up. That is the dynamics of the beautiful game which makes it so interesting and the re-assessment of our performance will give the team the opportunity to re-define their strategies and progress with more victories as the season unfolds.
If there is a season where football fans are certain of the quality of players, technical crew and management is the Akwa United team in the 2016/2017 football season. The team’s first game may have left fans shattered especially considering the away challenges of the team in terms of goals conceded but, I strongly believe that the game against ABS may not have brought the best out from our players as it was a perfect opportunity for the Coach Abdul Maikaba tutored side to rejig the sterling features in the team as we look ahead to the best of the remaining 37 league fixtures involving the team and the assessment of a holding forte at the end of the season.
Obviously, the team’s technical crew must have noted the weak points of the team all through the game and luckily, this loss comes at the very beginning of the season and serves as a wakeup call to the entire team that in becoming champions, you must walk the talk and run the race with focus to excel.
Champions are moulded in the course of a season or race, champions are made with focus, champions do not give up at the beginning, champions get up and fight back to succeed, champions are goal getters, champions learn from mistakes , champions play as a team, champions remain the envy of others, champions come out stronger in subsequent matches, champions never give up.
That is the hallmark, the new philosophy of the new Akwa United in the 2016/2017 football season, a season where the team has its set targets for continental return and surely, the team’s next game on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 against Rivers United in Uyo will be the cracker they need to energise the team and send a signal to other clubs that Akwa United will be league champions in 2017.
Most people may not believe in this optimism or should I say faith, but I have closely followed this team since the end of last season and I must confess that the management led by Etubom Paul Bassey has taken a detailed content in overhauling this team with the very best football can offer at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium and with the support of the Akwa Ibom State Government through the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Sir Monday Ebong Uko, the next few matches will definitely set the new outlay for another fairy tale season.
Some of the very best teams in the world do not start very well during competitions, some of the best clubs struggle to have a great understanding especially if it’s a new team and some of the best clubs hit their rhythm at later stages of the season.
What matters most is the ability to identify the early flaws in team knowing that this is the first real competitive game in a season where over seventy percent of the players are featuring together under such terse atmosphere.
Last season, the Nigerian league defending champions, Rangers Football Club of Enugu started the season on a dull note with a loss in their first fixture. In a particular month last season, Rangers lost several matches and dropped to the third position. Akwa United last season started with a draw against Sunshine Stars of Akure away and ended up fourteenth on the final log. Portugal at the last EURO Championship failed to impress at the group stages. They struggled to qualify but progressed to win the Championship.
Akwa United needs all the support it can get to excel. Teams must lose matches. That is one certain fact we must appreciate at all times. The present English Football season started on a bright note for Manchester City under Pep Gourdiolla, but in recent fixtures, there been a big blip in the results with questions over his possibility of winning the Premiership as he did while at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
I have listened to many comments from the fans who had expected so much from the game in Ilorin, but that is the way football is and we must though painfully learn to accept these defeats but more importantly begin to understand and identify with the spirit of renaissance of the philosophy of the Governor Udom Emmanuel led administration that we must believe in our content and possibilities and the vision set before us can be achieved no matter the huddle.
That is the spirit Akwa United must take into the game on Wednesday against Rivers United who fortunately won their first league game against El-kanemi at home by 2-1. The team needs the fans to steer them to success this Wednesday on a high score note as we need to clear any deficits,
This team will be playing back into reckoning and every committed fan of Akwa United must rise to the expected victory ahead. We have a great challenge in the first few league fixtures on the home soil as it will be played in mid week, but fans must troop out to cheer after office hours, spare two hours to make history with the ‘’Promise Keepers’’.
These are champions in the making and only history will recall the role we have all played in defining these moments and it begins as the team returns from Ilorin via Lagos and the support we give to them during their training sessions and our very first home game of the season which we must win convincingly. The team is not under pressure and now is the time to watch the new generation of golden players in Akwa United as 2017 begins, # I stand with Akwa United.
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