Aghahowa, Oliseh on Target in Intertoto Cup
As Babayaro heads to US
By Tunde Sulaiman
Two Nigerian internationals Julius Aghahowa and Sunday Oliseh were both on target for their respective clubs over the weekend in the Intertoto Cup competition.
However, effort of the former Super Eagles skipper was not enough to save his German club Borussia Dortmund from exit from the competition, which serves as a sort of 'back door' entry for clubs to qualify for the UEFA Cup - Europe's second top club competition after the Champions League.
It was a humiliating outing for Dortmund, champions of Europe in 1997, as they went down 1-2 in front of home fans to Belgium's Genk. The defeat was all the more painful because they had secured a hard fought 1-0 victory over the visitors in their road game in Belgium.
The humiliation of the former European champions will come as a further blow to the psyche of German fans coming so soon after the disappointing outing of the national team at Euro' 2004.
However, it was a better outing for Aghahowa when his goal helped Shakhter Donetsk progress in the competition with a 3-1 win over DNIPRO.
Aghahowa, the darling of Nigeria's silver finish at Ghana/Nigeria 2000, scored on 90th minute after coming on as a sub nine minutes earlier. He replaced Marica as the coach sort to give all his key players a run out.
The former Ukrainian champions eventually ran away 3-1 winners in the away match played Saturday.
Meanwhile, as the kick off to the new Premiership season draws nearer clubs have stepped up their preparations by taking part in a number of friendly matches.
Premiership champions, Arsenal that made history last season by going through the whole campaign unbeaten, are currently in Austria where they will play two matches. They played the first Saturday against Grazer AK and will conclude Wednesday with a game against Sturm Graz, which they won 2-1.
The Gunners will then head to Holland after the Graz game to take part in a mini competition involving Argentina's River Plate and Dutch champions Ajax. The London side kick-off the competition with a clash with the Argentine champions.
Arsene Wenger will hope the matches will put his team in good stead to face rivals Manchester United in the traditional England season opener - the Community Shield on August 8th.
On its part, United, the FA Cup holders, are currently in the United States where they kicked off their summer competition yesterday with a game against former Bundesliga kings Bayern Munich while on Wednesday they face Scottish champions Celtic and conclude their American tour with a game Serie A titleholders AC Milan in New York on Saturday. They will then head home to take part in a three-club competition at Old Trafford. Other teams taking part are PSV Eindhoven of Holland and Japan's Red Diamonds.
For Nigerian internationals Joseph Yobo, Celestine Babayaro, Jay Jay Okocha and Yakubu Aiyegbeni it will also been a busy period for them in the run up to the new season.
Yobo has already played two home friendlies with Everton and is scheduled to hit South America this week with games against Pachuca and Club America before rounding up with games against Sheffield Wednesday and Real Sociadad.
Babayaro, who surprised many by escaping new Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho culling, is currently with his teammates in the US taking part in a three-club tournament, which kicked off on Saturday with a tie with Celtic. They are billed to meet AS Roma on Thursday and AC Milan on August 2.
Bolton has opted to stay in England for its build up and will play seven matches before the season kicks off on the 16th of next month.
For Aiyegbeni there will not be any foreign trips as Harry Reddnapp has decided to keep Portsmouth at home to prepare. The club will play six games with the last coming up on August 7th against Pa
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