El-Kanemi coach blames draw with FC Dadje on rustiness, nationwide protest

3 months ago 33

By Christian Okpara

20 August 2024 | 1:57 am

El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri Coach, Aliyu Zubair, has blamed the recent nationwide protest against bad governance and rustiness for his side’s 1-1 draw with FC Dadje FC of Benin Republic, at the Remo Stars Stadium, Ikenne, on Saturday.

EL-Kanemi came from a losing position to score a late goal that tied the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup encounter. The coach said his team’s last competitive match was in July, adding that the nationwide protests made it impossible for the President Federation Cup champions to feature in any pre-season tournament before the game.

The team will meet the Beninoise side in the decisive leg of the tie this weekend. Exuding confidence in a better outing in Benin Republic, Coach Zubair said: “You cannot start evaluating your team with a competition proper, no matter how lowly-rated the competition is. You will need to evaluate your team with matches such as pre-season games. It is the best avenue to evaluate your team, not until you come to a competition proper before you start evaluating. Definitely, I think that was what affected the team.”

Zubair said the team only started intense preparation for the match on August 10 “when the protest stopped, and by that time, the match was close, and we had no opportunity to play any friendly. So, certainly, inability to play any friendly to prepare showed negatively in our game.”

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