By Samuel Bamisebi
Champions of the last National Sports Festival, Team Lagos have continued to sharpen their preparations towards the next National Sports Festival.
Team Lagos football team heightened their preparations by playing a friendly match against Nigerian National League side, Gateway FC of Ogun state. The game ended 2-0 in favour of the NNL side but the coach of Team Lagos, Adesina Yusuf was full of praise for his boys and their performance.
“Few years to this time we were playing unbeaten…but that’s football, I praise my boys because we played well in the second half. Despite the loss, we’ll go back to the training ground to correct our mistakes because this is the first time in eight months that we’re playing on grass and it showed in our game in the first half,” said coach Adesina of Team Lagos.
When asked about his concerns on the failure of his team to score in two games now after the goalless draw in their last game against another NNL side Joy Cometh FC and this two-nil loss to gateway away from home, coach Adesina said he spotted some areas of the game his team needs to work on so as to be of advantage to them and quite notably set pieces. “We had about six or seven close chances to score from freekicks but our players didn’t get that technique to score, but before next game, we will work on it by Monday,” He said.
Team Lagos next play another experienced NNL side, Shooting Stars of Ibadan, who are seeking to gain promotion back to the Nigerian Professional Football League and Coach Adesina believes his boys have what it takes to put a good performance.
“Playing Shooting Stars is an honour for me because I’m from Ibadan. We’ve been gathering experience for a while now and yes we’re majorly made up of players from academies…but I believe my boys will shock Shooting Stars.
Speaking to Sports247, one of the players of Team Lagos, Isaac Saviour feels it was good for the team to suffer the loss against Gateway because it will help them learn how to adapt outside their comfort zone even as they prepare for the All African Games.
“I’m not really saying we’ll come back with Gold, but I’m just hoping we have a nice outing and whatever comes out of it, we’ll thank God for it. I’m not under any pressure, we’ll just ensure we give our best,” said Isaac.
Team Lagos continue preparations for the next National Sports Festival as they play another top club side 3SC next.
