Splending Start for Africa, World Champions and the Host

Oduamadi, celebrating his goal with team-mates

Nigeria, representing Africa in the 2013 FIFA Confederation Cup, produced a commendable start in the competition after claiming an easy 6-1 victory over Tahiti on the night of Monday 17^th June, 2013. The tournament, being hosted in South America’s Brazil, commenced on Saturday 15^th and will have its final played on 30^th this month.

Nnamadi Oduamadi completed a hat-trick while Uwa Echiejile scored a brace for the Super Eagles as they subjected the Pacific Islanders to humiliation in their first match at a senior FIFA world tournament. The only Tahiti consolation goal came from Jonathan Tehau, who converted Marama Vahirua’s corner with a wonderful header past Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama on the 54^th minute. Tehau however erroneously scored a 68^th minute own goal to add to the African champions’ tally on their 19^th match without defeat, their longest ever unbeaten run.

The Super Eagles defeated Burkina Faso 1-0 in the February 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final in South Africa to earn the right to represent Africa at the FIFA Confederations Cup. They currently sit on 31^st world position and 4^th in Africa according to the latest FIFA rankings and top of group F in Africa’s 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.

Tahiti, the Oceania champion’s next match will be against the World and European champions, Spain on Thursday 20^th in a match which weighs the world’s 1^st position against 138^th in the FIFA Ranking. On the other hand, the Super Eagles will battle against South American champions, Uruguay, on Friday 21^st.

In the previous matches, Brazil (who qualified automatically as the host country) started with a 3-0 clean sheet against Asian champions, Japan in the competition’s opening match on Saturday. Neymar da Silva, FC Barcelona’s new signing, opened up the goal-scoring campaign with a 3^rd minute long range strike, followed by José Paulinho and João Alves’ goals on the 48^th and 93^rd minutes respectively. Brazil is the defending champion of the Confederation Cup, having won it in both 2005 and 2009.

Later on the same day, Spain who qualified for the Confederations Cup as the reigning FIFA World Cup champions also started with a 2-1 victory over Uruguay. They took an early 2-0 lead, courtesy of Pedro Rodriguez and Roberto Soldado’s 20^th and 32^nd minute goals. With just two minutes to the end of the match, Liverpool forward, Luis Suarez’s 88^th minute brilliant free kick outdid Iker Casillas to give the South American side their lone goal.

Did you know?

That the England Barclays Premier League fixture of the 2013/14 season will be announced tomorrow, Wednesday 19^th June 2013 at 11:00am local time?

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The Sleeping Class!

From left: Sleeping Vivienne, Jacinta rubbing her sleepy eyes

 “If readers fall asleep while reading your sales letter, then something is wrong…”

This is neither my personal opinion, nor is it a philosophical saying. It is just a statement that I managed to quote from the recently-ended lecture – Writing Sales Letters in Mr. Mbengei’s Specialized Writing Course on the afternoon of 12^th June, 2013. However, this statement quickly turned out to hit back at the lecturer unfortunately!

The irony started right from the class attendance. Only 13 members of the 3^rd year Media Science class turned up for today’s lecture session, out of a possible 28. Of course noticing the absence of somebody like Irene equals to zero, as opposed to Chrispinus which is news. Anyway, the beginning never seemed to predict the end, as everyone looked attentive, wanting to know all about writing a sales letter.

However, all hell broke loose when a cloud of sleeping spirit started descending upon a few members as the session proceeded. The first to drive away to a far away land was her Excellency, Vivienne spp, who upon giving up with the struggle to stay awake, danced to the tune of a comfortable sleep, but opted to maintain an upright posture like a hen would do.

As if that was not enough to create humor and probably encourage the rest to stay awake, it did not take long before Hon. Kiathi joined the battle. He started by eliminating his jumper for reasons best known to himself. As soon as he noticed my suspicion about his wake, he devised a tailor-made approach at least to hide something from the journalist me. He constantly changed and modified his sitting position and this went on for the rest of the session. Thank God he escaped the blast.

Then it was time for the M.U FM Director, Mr. Lang’at to show his mighty. You could not realize this by anything tangible, but from the look of his drowning eyes. His effort of wanting to keep them open was eventually futile and the man quietly walked out, just as a cover up for the defeat. Or maybe he was going to attend to an urgent delicate issue arising at the studio – who knows?

Victor supporting his head against chest

Major General Nyakachunga emerged as the man of the match. He took advantage of his far proximity from the lecturer to give in to the situation. Using his chin, he successfully supported his little-sized head against his chest in a manner unlikely to pose any doubt about his full concentration on the lecture. After failing to notice any kind of movement of his body for more than 30 minutes, it prompted me to be keener on him and surprisingly, Victor had already drifted away from the world of reality. He too, upon the return of Lang’at, opted to vacate the class and never came back. The next venue I spotted him was in the computer laboratory after the class, updating his friends on facebook and twitter.

 I would therefore like to express my sincere congratulatory message to those who managed to struggle with me, just to keep our eyes open to the very end:

The likes of Agak, Tom, Sugut, Brioo, Wambua and Jeff; without forgetting my sisters Jacinta and Cynthia.

“If students fall asleep while attending your lecture, then something is wrong…”