Izuchukwu OkosiNigeria’s first women representative at the maiden edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League, Rivers Angels FC on Tuesday evening were defeated 1-0 by Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in their second Group B game to dent their chances to qualify for the semifinals of the competition after two group losses.
Rivers Angels need to defeat Vihiga Queens by a margin of five goals while they hope that Mamelodi Sundown do them a favour by defeating ASFAR.
The Angels coached by Edwin Okon who also is the chief scout of the Nigeria women’s national team, Super Falcons, needed a win to stand a chance of advancing beyond the group stage and qualify for the semifinals of the competition.
Rivers Angels had a goal legitimately disallowed after the ball hit Vivian Ikechukwu’s hand before crossing the goal line.
The Nigerian girls had lost to ASFAR FC of Morocco and against the South Africans they met a stiff opposition and forward Nhlapho grabbed the goal that broke the Nigerian side.
Any hopes of reaching the latter stages of the competition was dealt a devastating blow following the 2-0 victory of Vihiga Queens over ASFAR.
Rivers Angels will now face Kenyans Vihiga Queens on Friday in what is merely an inconsequential game while Mamelodi Sundowns face off against ASFAR
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
That referee that officiated the match btw rivers Angels and sundown was simply biase. How can you give a goal you were not show it crossed the line, especially when there is nothing like goal line technology. How do you also explain denying the girls from Nigeria clear penalties. And the way you were when cancelling their goal as a result of handball shows it all. Sundown belongs to the CAF president may be it was enough to influence refereeing decisions. Shame on African football.