Adewale Oladoye was yesterday voted the man of the match (MOTM) as Nigeria were held to a 1-1 draw against Côte d’Ivoire in their opening WAFU U20 Cup of Nations qualifiers tournament.

Oladoye who wore jersey number 4 for Nigeria was rated as the best player on the pitch in the game which ended with Nigeria playing with ten men.

Nicknamed Patrick Viera, the Water FC of Abuja midfielder controlled the game for the Nigerian side who had lot of possession and he could easily have bagged an assist if Wisdom Ubani concerted when he put him through with the goalkeeper at his mercy.

That miss proved costly as Côte d’Ivoire scored with what was virtually the last kick of the game but that didn’t stop the technical study group from voting Oladoye as man of the match.

Nigeria will be banking on then lanky forward to deliver once again when they take on Ghana on Wednesday in their second and final group game of the tournament.

Former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Austin Okocha says what the team need at the moment is a playmaker who can open up spaces for the attackers to score.

Nigeria have struggled to replace the mercurial midfielder since his exit with no real number ten emerging as his replacement in the team.

Speaking on the short comings of the team, Okocha suggest that coach Gernot Rohr should drop his nephew Alex Iwobi as the number ten of the team as he called on the coach to look for natural midfielders who can create chances.

Iwobi has played in the number ten role for Super Eagles since the exit of John Obi Mikel but Okocha Insist what the team currently lacks is in the position where he plays.

“What the Eagles need now are natural midfielders who can create chances and change the course of a game. We need midfielders who can run at defenders and pick their teammates with good passes.

“ We have midfielders but not in that level at the moment. Some of them are just scared and the fact that they are being compared to the 1994 Eagles bring a bit of pressure on them”, he concluded.

Genk of Belgium forward Paul Onuachu has lifted the lid on why he can’t stop scoring for Belgium side Genk with 14 goals in 14 games.

The 26 year old scored his third brace of the season as his team picked up their seventh consecutive win with a 4-2 victory over Antwerp to remain top of the table in the Belgium league.

Onuachu has now scored more goals than any other striker in Europe top 16 leagues this season, making him one of the most feared forward in Belgium at the moment but same can’t be said about his form for the senior national team of Nigeria.

While he has struggled for goals with Nigeria where he has just one goal in seven games, he has continue scoring for fun with Genk and he is in the running for the top scorer award.

Explaining the secret of his fine form, the former Midtjylland forward said a lot is down to playing alongside two quick wingers in Junya Ito and Theo Bongonda as they understand how best to pass the ball to him in the box.

“ Bongonda and Ito are so good. They are strong and very fast. They create chances out of nothing. It is very difficult to keep them out of a game. It is all going very well at the moment. It’s like everything is on auto pilot more like we just do things without even thinking about them”, he said on the reason behind his goal scoring run.

The first choice goalkeeper of the senior national team of Nigeria and Sparta Rotterdam Maduka Okoye has picked the coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr as the best he has worked with in his career so far.

21 year old Okoye is now firmly established as the first choice of his Dutch side where he has helped them to 9th position with two clean sheets in the five games he has been in goal.

His rise to the position of number one for club and country is something remarkable considering the fact that he was playing in the German 4th division for the B team of Fortuna Düsseldorf around this time last year.

In an interview sourced by the editorial team of Owngoalnigeria.com, the goalkeeper picked coach of the Nigerian team as the best he has worked with as he continue to make a way for himself.

“ Do I have to choose? Rohr anyway purely because I have known him longer and because he gave me my debut but really I love Henk Fraser ( Coach of Sparta Rotterdam)”, he said.

Genk of Belgium forward Paul Onuachu has entered the record books in Belgium after scoring twice for Genk in their 4-2 win over Antwerp yesterday.

The brace also makes him the top scorer in Europe so far this season but more importantly helped him set a new record for goals scored after a certain amount of games in the Belgium league.

His goal count of 14 goals in 14 games is the most scored by any striker in the history of the league in Belgium after 15 rounds of games the past ten years. A record he now shares with ex Genk striker Jelle Vossen.

Vossen scored 14 goals after the first 15 games of the season for Genk during his time at the club. Dieumerci Mbokani closes the top three of the past ten years with thirteen goals in 15 games.

Aside his personal record Genk have also profited from his run in front of goal as they have now won their last seven games and also sitting top of the league.

The Flying Eagles of Nigeria got their campaign at the WAFU U20 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers underway with a 1-1 draw against Côte d’Ivoire.

Chris Nwaeze gave Nigeria the lead in the 60th minute by heading home a free kick from Wisdom Ubani but less than ten minutes after scoring he was sent off after picking his second booking of the game.

Côte d’Ivoire took advantage of playing against a ten man Nigerian team when they level with the last luck of the game to deny Nigeria the chance of topping the group after the first round of games.

“ We took advantage of the loss of concentration on the part of Côte d’Ivoire to score and after the goal we had a player sent off. Even after the red card we played really well but towards end there was loss of concentration from my defence line and it gave them the chance to level up”, Bosso said after the game.

“ However we look at those areas we had problems and that is now what we can see here as they are mostly internal. We’ll go back and plan for the next game”, he concluded.

Speaking ahead of their next game against Ghana, Bosso said his boys need to get their acts together for the game as only an outright win will be good enough for them to scale through to the next round of the qualifiers tournament.

Nigeria U20 star forward Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi didn’t move to Giant Brila for 15 million naira as reported by this portal yesterday.

The player who has emerged as one is the hottest prospect in the Nigeria U20 team originally came to the camp of the team as a player of Olive Charles Academy of Anambra.

However when the names of players picked by coach Ladan Bosso for the U20 WAFU tournament was made official he was tagged as a player of Giant Brila FC and that immediately triggered our investigation and subsequent report.

“ That report is inaccurate. We didn’t receive a penny from Giant Brila all we have is an understanding that saw us use an NNL team where he is on loan for the tournament. No fee was paid”, Atuanya Charles Chijioke who runs Olive Charles Academy told Owngoalnigeria.com.

A source of Giant Brila also confirmed that no fee was paid for Ikwuemesi rather an agreement was reached on him to be with the team on a loan kind of agreement which all parties accepted is best for the boy.

“ No money was paid. 15 million is no small money in this time that we are although the boy is worth far more than that. We know where this came from but it’s nothing but a fabricated lie”, he said.

On loan Liverpool forward Taiwo Awoniyi was once again on target for Union Berlin but ended up on the losing side as they were beaten 1-3 by Hertha Berlin in a derby game in the Bundesliga.

The goal was his second goal in eight league games but more recently his second goal in his last three games as he only failed to score against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Awoniyi showed his instinct as a predators in the box with a smart finish in the 20th minute to put his team ahead. A lead which they held going into the half time break.

They were however blown away by a rampant Hertha Berlin side who scored three goals in the second half to pick all three points and also move up to 11th on the log.

“ It’s not the result we want so despite my goal I can’t say I’m happy with the final outcome. When you score and your team loses it’s not a good feeling because football is a team game. We fought really hard and we have learnt lessons from this loss”, Awoniyi told Owngoalnigeria.com.

Newly installed first choice goalkeeper of the senior national team of Nigeria Maduka Okoye was once again between the sticks as Sparta Rotterdam edged FC Emmen 2-1 in a Dutch Eredivisie game.

The shot stopper started the move that led to his team first goal and also kept them in the game with a two good saves before finally conceding in the 52nd minute.

Sparta regained the lead six minutes later and hanged on to claim yet another win which helped them to further move up the table after the disappointment of last weekend loss against PSV.

Since Okoye was made first choice the team has experienced a turn around in their form and have moved from 16th to 9th on the table.

In the six games without Okoye they conceded 14 goals with no clean sheets picking up just three points out of a possible 18.

The above changed with Okoye as first choice in five games as they have won three out of five games and conceded just six goals with two clean sheets. They picked 9 out of the 15 points available in the process.