Nigeria: Dubai Gold Cup – El-Amin Go Out On High

Sunleye-Solawumi Olaleye

9 March 2011

The high-flying Nigeria polo club, El-Amin, has lost its last group match in the on-going Threadneedle Dubai Gold Cup. Playing against Chantoot on the lush fields of the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club the Arabian Ranches in Dubai Tuesday, the team of Mohammed Babangida put up a great resistance but still went down 9-5 at the end of the 4-chukka match.

However, unlike their previous matches, El-Amin lived up to the promise they made that they would learn from the experience of their earlier two loses, this time taking on their opponents squarely; and for several moments, making it to look like it was going to be anyone’s game.

Kicking off the game, the home side were the ones who looked the more dangerous of the two, as they opened their account with a foray, which only took the timely intervention of Amin’s top player, Bello Buba, to repel. Moments later, Amin would strike with an awesome show of speed and power when the pair of Aminu Alhaji and Babangida broke free in anticipation of a swipe by a teammate. The hot pursuit from the players of Chantoot was to be to no avail as the Nigerians ferociously tucked away to open the account of the evening.

The Amin’s goal was to the great delight of the crowd, a majority of whom were Nigerians or fans with Nigerian sympathy, and they cheered it rapturously as if it was the winning goal. But given the fact that it was the first time since the beginning of the tournament that El-Amin was going to open the goals’ account against any of their opponents, it was little wonder that their fans cheered it so loudly.

However, the ecstasy on the part of the Nigerians and all their fans were doomed to be short lived as Chantoot would strike back in quick succession. First on the direct rebound from the throw down after the El-Amin goal, and then doubling their advantage a minute later to put them in front, 2-1.

El-Amin had themselves to blame for not equalising almost immediately as their own response was wasted via poor marksmanship. In fact, this would characterised their game in this their last match as they were going to end up with numerous wasted scoring chances; one of them a penalty.

AllAfrica – All the Time