{"id":464058,"date":"2011-07-19T12:15:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T12:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-team-profile-enyimba\/"},"modified":"2011-07-19T12:15:01","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T12:15:01","slug":"nigeria-team-profile-enyimba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-team-profile-enyimba\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: Team Profile &#8211; Enyimba"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"91.2545676005\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailytrust.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/dailytrust180.jpg\" alt=\"Daily Trust (Abuja)\" title=\"Visit Daily Trust (Abuja)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>16 July 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>Two-time African champions Enyimba are back in familiar territory after they last reached the semi-finals of the competition in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>They will be favourites along with Cotonsport of Cameroon to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition from a group that also has Morocco&#8217;s Raja Casablanca and Al Hilal of Sudan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>State of the team<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enyimba are enjoying a surge in form in the Nigeria Premier League after a rather indifferent start to the season.<\/p>\n<p>A cash crunch which has hit most of the clubs in the Nigerian top flight was blamed for the poor of &#8216;The People&#8217;s Elephant&#8217;, but they have since regained form and are pushing for a better finish even though it is looking increasingly unlikely they will retain the championship.<\/p>\n<p>They are now seventh on the 20-team table with 48 points from 30 matches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strengths<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s star player now is Josiah Maduabuchi. He is a very skilful forward who can single handedly destroy any opposition on a good day. He has good pace, dribbles very well and weighs in with a fair share of goals.<\/p>\n<p>They have a strong back four marshalled by central defender Nnaemeka Anyanwu, a former youth international who has matured within such a short time.<\/p>\n<p>In attack, Victor Barnabas, Uche Kalu and Josiah Maduabuchi have provided the goals.<\/p>\n<p>They have experience running through the team, from goalkeeper Chijoke Ejiogu to defender Kenneth Anyanwu, midfielder Chiedozie Johnson and forward David Tyavkase.<\/p>\n<p>They are also almost invincible at home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Their away form has been a concern lately. In last season&#8217;s CAF Confederation Cup, they lost heavily away from home.<\/p>\n<p>They have also several quality players like Cletus Itodo, Ajani Ibrahim, Gabriel Reuben and Atanda Sakibu, who helped them to win the league last season.<\/p>\n<p>Nnaemeka Anyanwu has formed a great central defensive combo with Emmanuel Anyanwu, who though has been away with the country&#8217;s Olympic team and will also be unavailable for the opening three match days of the Champions League as he is now the country&#8217;s Under-20 World cup bound for the World Cup in Colombia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The coach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Felix Okey Emordi helped Enyimba to successfully defend the CAF Champions League trophy they first won in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>He is a very experienced coach who has handled some of Nigeria&#8217;s top clubs like Enugu Rangers, and he also worked briefly with Bush Bucks in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, he returned on his second stint at club and helped them to win their sixth league title.<\/p>\n<p>He is a very pragmatic coach, a tough task master, who believes in fitness, direct play and would always be happy for his team to play ugly and win, rather than the reverse.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Squad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Goalkeepers: Chijoke Ejiogu, John Lawrence, Godwin Paul<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Emmanuel Anyanwu, Nnaemeka Anyanwu, Kenneth Anyanwu, Valentine Nwabaeli, John Agbawu, Usman Amodu, Markson Ojobo, Musa Mustapha, Samuel Tswanya, Chinedu Udoji, David Amanyi, Kevin Njoku, Abdullahi Abdul<\/p>\n<p>Midfielders: Rasheed Olabiyi, Peter Onoja, Chiedozie Johnson, Otekpa Eneji<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Josiah Maduabuchi, Philip Auta, Victor Barnabas, Uche Kalu, Junior Osagie, Ifeanyi Ede, Bernard Okorowanta, Nonso Elias, Henry Uche, Ahmed Kadiri<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>View article:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201107190705.html\" title=\"Nigeria: Team Profile - Enyimba\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nigeria: Team Profile &#8211; Enyimba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 16 July 2011 Two-time African champions Enyimba are back in familiar territory after they last reached the semi-finals of the competition in 2008. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nigeria: Team Profile - Enyimba - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-team-profile-enyimba\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nigeria: Team Profile - Enyimba - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"16 July 2011 Two-time African champions Enyimba are back in familiar territory after they last reached the semi-finals of the competition in 2008.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/dailytrust180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-team-profile-enyimba\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-team-profile-enyimba\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Nigeria: Team Profile &#8211; 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