Sunday Mba delivers on Any Given Sunday…………. Super Eagles Kings of Africa Again

After church, I went home to rest thinking it was just football that will take the rest of my day. As I lay on my bed waiting for the Tinsel Omnibus to come up (missed Friday’s episode), my cousin came in and reminded me about a thanksgiving service at her parents’ church. I had forgotten. We left home just about when Tinsel started which was 11am and we didn’t finish till like 1pm. Got home at about 1.30pm and as I got back to my bed, I remembered Aston Villa was about to play Westham. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered but I have a soft spot for Villa. Truth be told I slept off just before the first half was over. I woke up in perfect time to watch my boys, Man Utd take on Everton. A game I was kinda dreading. The Red Devils’ good form was beginning to scare me, but Shitty’s result the day before (they lost 3-1 to Southampton) calmed my nerves. Win or lose United would still be a whopping 9 points clear at the top of the EPL.
In not so spectacular fashion, Man Utd shrugged off the threat of the Mersey side based team. Everton play beautiful football and I must commend David Moyes for doing a good job with this team on a little budget. Whilst watching the game, the AFCON closing ceremony had started. I wasn’t bothered because the 3 points at stake was more important, besides I only wanted to see D’banj and watch Nigeria tear Burkina Faso into shreds. United took the lead through veteran Ryan Giggs in the 13th minute. The game wore on with both sides having chances. My man Ponche distracted me a bit though (sick Assnal fan) when he showed up at my door. As his name depicts I had to start thinking of what drink to get him, hahahaha. Robin Van Persie put United 2 up on the stroke of half time after missing truckloads of chances. Now I had started switching between channels watching the closing ceremony and the Red Devils.
Dapo Oyebanjo aka D’banj brought the AFCON 2013 to a fantastic end with a performance similar to the one Beyonce delivered at the Super Bowl . Africa’s biggest entertainment export performed his multiple award winning single “Oliver Twist” and also the theme song he wrote for the tournament “On top of the world”. I still don’t get the beef peeps have for this guy though. Anyway lovely display from the Koko Master. Back to the United game and the boys didn’t let me down. The game ended 2-0. Rafael in one word? Brilliant. This right back was my man of the match, the best player in the world in his position. Phil Jones also had a great game. The young lad was handed the herculean task of man marking Everton’s danger man Maroune Felliani and boy did he do it well. Manchester United are now 12 points clear at the top of the league table. Spurs are however breathing down Chelsea’s neck while Arsenal have overtaken Everton to be in 5th position. The title is United’s to lose. Ryan Giggs continued reveling breaking records. He has scored in 23 consecutive league seasons. 23? Yes 23. His goal made him the only player in premiership history to have scored in every premier league season since inception in 1992. Next up for my boys is an away match in the Champions league against Real Madrid. I am sure the lads will come back with a favourable result putting us in a comfortable position to qualify for the quarter finals.
The Super Eagles as always (in this tournament) started the game the liveliest of both teams. In my last post I was so sure of victory against this Burkina Faso side and it was looking so. I later got scared deep into the first half when we hadn’t scored. These Burkinababes have strength and it looked like they had plans to run the Naija boys down and take it from there. By now Ponche was already cursing, lmao. Brown Ideye and Moses losing chance after chance. Cometh the man, cometh the day and cometh the goal. Sunday Mba scored a cracker of a goal in the 40th minute. A striker’s delight. This lad who plies his trade in the shores of Naija for Warri Wolves has been the revelation of the tournament. Sad he didn’t make the tournament’s best XI. He is Sunday and he scored both his nation’s cup goals on Sundays. Does “Any given Sunday ring a bell”? Sunday Mba surely will deliver on any given Sunday. Shout to my bro @damzbaba who I unbelievably saw in the stands after the game.
Nigeria has been crowned the Kings of Africa once again after 19 years and 7 attempts not making it to the 1996 and 1998 editions of the AFCON due to political reasons and a ban from CAF (no thanks to General Sani Abacha) and 2012 for failing to qualify. Congratulations to the lads and Coach Stephen Keshi. Emenike top goal scorer, yay. I predicted that didn’t I? Moses had a fantastic tournament. Did Jonathan Pitroipa deserve to be player of the tournament? Maybe, but glad Moses also got a mention. Big ups to the 5 players from Nigeria that made it to the tournament’s XI; Vincent Enyeama, Efe Ambrose, Mikel Obi, Victor Moses and Mike Emenike. The lads have automatically qualified for the Confederations cup holding in Brazil later this year. They will come up against Tahiti, Spain and Uruguay. Keshi is the only man alive to win the AFCON both as a player (he captained the 1994 team) and Coach.
Yes Ponche went home and happy was he. He was pissed at Yaba residents though saying we don’t know how to celebrate winning a major trophy. In his words Somolu ma ti daru (the streets of Somolu would have been filled with mad celebrations). We try nah, na fireworks posh people dey do jor. And Bizzlelicious didn’t jinx us, phew.
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Twitter handles: @theswizzmemoirs or @dipoogun

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