Rangers lnternational of Enugu in League match.
The biggest football rivalry in Nigeria will be rekindled today when Rangers come up against Shooting Stars at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.
With 11 top flight division titles between them, both sides are without a doubt among the most successful clubs in the country.
Although both teams have not won the league title for over a decade (Shooting Stars won the league last in 1998 while Rangers won it last in 1984), their rivalry, dating back to the early seventies, ensures that any game involving them is more often than not a potential cracker.
At least that was the case before the nineties, before the decline in attendance figures at match venues became a cause for concern.
Back in the seventies and eighties, matches involving both sides drew large number of spectators regardless of whether the match was taking place at Enugu, Ibadan or any other part of the country.
Both sides, along with their fierce rivals Stationery Stores of Lagos, also had the best footballers in the land and it was commonplace to find the national team dominated by players from both club sides as was the case between 1976 and 1980 when Nigeria won two bronze medals (1976 and 1978) and a Cup of Nations gold (1980), and came within one game of qualifying for the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina.
While Rangers produced the likes of Emmanuel Okala, Christian Chukwu, Sylvanus Okpala and Okey Isima, as well as Adokie Amiesimaka for the national team, Shooting Stars did likewise in the form of Best Ogedegbe, Sam Ojebode, Muda Lawal, Felix Owolabi and Segun Odegbami.
Both clubs were also dominant in Africa as Shooting Stars, which were back then known as IICC Shooting Stars, won the CAF Cup Winners Cup in 1976 with Rangers following suit a year later.
In the eighties, despite the arrival on the scene of the likes of Abiola Babes, Leventis United and Iwuanyanwu Nationale (now known as Heartland), both sides still remained big crowd pullers as the likes of Rangers’ Ifeanyi Onyedika, and Jude Agada, along with Shooting Stars’ Taiwo Ogunjobi, Rashidi Yekini and Wole Odegbami took over from the aging stars in maintaining the rivalry between Enugu and Ibadan.
But even with the low interest shown by fans with regards to the domestic game from the outset of the nineties, fans still longed for matches involving both sides. And that remains the case today as both sides get set to turn the lush green artificial playing surface of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium into a battle field in what is undoubtedly the star match of the weekend.
Memory lane
“There is no match bigger than this as far as true Rangers fans are concerned. Playing against Shooting Stars and beating them is one of the high points of the season for true fans of Rangers,” said Okala who was Rangers’ undisputed first choice goalkeeper between 1972 and 1983.
“Back in our days, everyone in Enugu, in the days leading up to the match, would have only one thing on their minds and that is how to get early to the stadium in order to secure a good position from which they can watch the match,” he recalled.
“But we are talking about things that happened many years ago, things that today’s players and some of the younger fans will not understand,” added the Rangers legend who insists he will be at the stadium to watch his darling side.
For his part, Owolabi, who played for Shooting Stars from the mid-seventies right up to 1992 when he led the Ibadan side to victory at the maiden edition of the CAF Confederations Cup, won’t be in Enugu to cheer up the Stars but hopes the game will live up to its billing as the star match of the week especially as it has the potential to reawaken the interest of Nigerians in the domestic league.
“For those of us who have for years been clamouring for the improvement of the league this is the kind of match we feel can do that for us,” said Owolabi.
“There’s a whole lot of history behind it and if the fans come out as expected it will be a great game especially if the players know the history of the rivalry and how important this game is to fans of both clubs.” In the past, especially in the years following the civil war, both clubs were regional in nature, with Shooting Stars representing the Yoruba dominated western part of Nigeria while Rangers represented the interest of the Ibo dominated east.
Recent history
So rare was it to find player transfers between both sides. But that is no longer the case as there have been numerous cases of players switching from one to the other. The most recent case is that of Segun Oluwaniyi who left Rangers three seasons ago to team up with his hometown club. Last weekend, Oluwaniyi was on the bench when Shooting Stars defeated Plateau United 2-1 in Ibadan in what was his first appearance of the season for the Oluyole Warriors, but sources within the camp of the Ibadan side suggest that he will likely start against the Flying Antelopes.
He is nevertheless relishing the prospect of returning to a place he regards as his “second home”.
“Enugu is my second home as I spent so many years there playing for Rangers,” said Oluwaniyi. “I love the people and so many of them love me. But on Sunday, all that will be cast aside as all me and my teammates will be after are the points we need to climb up the table.” They will however be up against a side that has scored more goals than any other side in the league.
The Flying Antelopes have scored 13 goals so far this season but all have come from just three matches played at the Nnamdi Azikiwe. First to feel the wrath of Rangers were Lobi Stars (3-2) before Ocean Boys (5-2) and Zamfara United (5-1) followed suit.
If Shooting Stars continue with their recent poor form away from home, a form that has seen them lose their last two away matches to Enyimba and Kano Pillars, they may end up like the other teams that have been to Enugu this season.
Source:http://234next.com/
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