Emenike grabs hattrick for Spartak Moscow

  

MOSCOW Nigerian forward Emmanuel Emenike scored a hattrick as nine-time Russian champion Spartak Moscow trounced thrashed 3-0 city rivals Lokomotiv to stop the railway-backed side's 12-match unbeaten streak under Portuguese manager Jose Couceiro.

Spartak started in lively fashion, clinching the lead in the second minute through Emenike, who sent the ball into an unguarded post from three metres following Aiden McGeady's short cross.

Lokomotiv poured on the attack seeking an equaliser but Emenike made it

2-0 for Spartak in the 15th minute firing home from the edge of the box.

Emenike completed his hat-trick six minutes after the interval, scoring again from the edge of the area past Lokomotiv Brazilian goalie Guilherme.

In the closing stages Lokomotiv's Nigerian striker Victor Obinna reduced his team's chances of saving the day as he was sent off for two bookable offences, the pair of yellows received within just two minutes.

Meanwhile, Brazilian veteran Roberto Carlos, the co-manager of big-spending side Anzhi Makhachkala, finally notched his first win in the Russian league with a 2-1 success over visiting Amkar Perm on Saturday.

Russian international left-winger Yury Zhirkov, who joined Anzhi in August from English Premiership side Chelsea, put Anzhi into the lead, firing home a rebound after a corner with a help of a ricochet three minutes before the break.

Cameroon international striker Samuel Eto'o added a goal with nine minutes to go, firing into the top right corner from 20 metres to secure Makhachkala a well-deserved win.

Amkar's Ukrainian forward Ilya Mikhalev netted a late consolation in injury time with a 10-metre header but failed to save a point.

The win ended Anzhi's five-match winless streak and assured the side a top eight placing, sending them through to the title phase.

"We dominated the playing and should score much more goals today," Zhirkov said.

"But after missing a series of chances we lost the initiative and allowed Amkar to score. Luckily we managed to keep our lead through and clinch a place in the upper half of the league to play for the title next year."

             

Three Nigerians shortlisted for CAF awards

Three Nigerians made the shortlist for the 2010 edition of the Glo Confederation of African Football (CAF) Footballer of the Year award.
Dickson Etuhu, Osaze Peter Odemwingie and Kalu Uche were the only Nigerians picked in the nominees for this year’s award.
The provisional list of Caf for the 2010 award is full of surprises, as Nigerians will be shocked to find Etuhu in the list and John Obi Mikel excluded despite the player being touted as having improved his game in recent games for Chelsea.

Explaining the rationale for the shortlist respected Caf instructor, Adegboye Onigbinde, said that every award has it criteria for nominating players.

He opined out that it should be remembered that the likes of Etuhu, Odemwingie and Kalu Uche appeared in several international matches for Nigeria in which Mikel did not.

Onigbinde used the 2010 Fifa World Cup as an example.

“You cannot win awards when you don’t play at the very big stage. Yes no doubt playing for your club is good but every award has its own criteria for picking nominees and the Caf award is no exception.

“So the players nominated for the award must have picked based on certain co-efficient like playing in the Fifa World Cup this year and also other international matches for their countries.

The absence of Mikel might be due to such lack of picking enough co-efficient to be nominated,” the former Nigerian head coach said.

However, Mikel’s Ghanaian teammate, Michael Essien, is also missing from the provisional list of 30 and his case is believed to due to the injury that kept him away from competitive football for a long period, which led to his missing the Mundial in South Africa.

Apart from Etuhu, Odemwingie and Uche in the Caf nominees, it is learnt that Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana produced five players each.

The trio of Cameroon, Egypt and Morocco has three players each like Nigeria while Algeria produced two.

Benin Republic, DR Congo, Mali, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia all have one player apiece in the Caf award’s provisional list.

Perennial nominees such as Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o of Inter Milan and Cameroon are part of those named in the shortlist.

Other top names in the hat are Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew of Ghana, the Toure brothers – Kolo and Yaya and their Ivorien teammate, Salomon Kalou.

The 30-man list is expected to be trimmed to 10 by Caf’s three committees of media, technical and football