By Murtala Zainab Sefrinmi
Students from various faculties of the University have shown disappointment in the performance of the Lagos State University football team known as the LASU Blazers, who recently crashed out of the much anticipated Higher Institution Football League (HIFL) qualifiers hosted on their home ground .
Despite a commendable outing in the 2019 season for the Blazers at various tournament such as the ASFU, and the HIFL, the team gave less than the fans expected of them and it wss a very big upset as the team lost the two matches played in the qualifying round of the playoffs.
The HIFL second season which is set to commence later in the year had the Zone "C" qualifying rounds matches played on the LASU Sports center being the home ground of the Blazers, who played host to universities like the University of Lagos UNILAG, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology LAUTECH, Federal University of Technology Akure FUTA, Olabisi Onabanjo University OOU, and ABUAD.
It was a round robin format where the 6 schools were divided into two pots of 3 teams each, with one qualifier to emerge from each pots. Each team is to play two games each, that is a game against each team in their group, to determine by points and goal difference if need be, to decide the team that tops the group.
It wasn't a rough decision to make in the group containing the LASU Blazers, Unilag Marines and the LAUTECH team where LASU lost both games against UNILAG and LAUTECH on a goal deficit to both teams.
The first game against the UNILAG Marines on Tuesday 20th of April 2021 ended with a lone goal against the LASU Blazers having the UNILAG Marines top the table with a goal and 3 points. The second match against LAUTECH took place 10am the next morning. It was a firece challenge as both teams were looking for a win. Over 6 players were booked in the game as there were hard tackles and tough challenges in the match which ended with a 2-1 score in favour of LAUTECH with a late minute winner after a long dingdong affair through out the game, where LAUTECH took a goal lead to the halftime of the game, while LASU Blazers equalized minutes into the second 45 mins of the game.
The Lagos State University Students Union sports director, Ajitokewu Babajide who is a member of the Local organizing committee of the event on campus, spoke with ACJ-LASU and in His words, He made mention that "The team were well prepared before the commencement of HIFL, they had series of training and friendly matches to keep them in competition form. The players were not really motivated, because of the delay in the competition fee by the university management, their allowances and other fees used in the competition were not paid on time"
He further projected in his words "We are out of the competition! What we have left is our Lasusu Champions League and Lasusu Marathon, No interuniversity football competition for now, there are many other outstanding competitions out there, but they can never be bigger and better than HIFL"
He blames the coach's tactical approach to the game and inability to make certain decisions as He mentioned. He also opined that "the players level of proficiency was also very low compared to what we had in the last outing and indiscipline from the players."
The team captain and shotstopper Saka Abiola Abdulaziz who also spoke with ACJ-LASU in his words said: "We prepared very well but I guess we didn’t carry out our assignment very well. We’ll surely go back to the board and make corrections"
He also hinted us on the Nigeria university games association (NUGA) which is coming soon and also sends a message to the supporting fans " I just want to say on behalf of my colleagues and I, we sincerely apologize for the disappointment and also want to appreciate their efforts and support to us. God bless the entire LASU family".
The state of sports in the Lagos State University in recent time has been an interesting journey as the University has participated in several compettions in the space of years recording outstanding results in athletics, Judo, Badminton and other games.
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