Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

Post by cic old boy »

The rivalry b/w Enugu Rangers and Vasco went beyond football and started from the minute both clubs were formed in 1970.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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I am glad everyone is ignoring this imaginary nonsense.

It's cellulite i don't understand. One day he is merging threads because of lack of space and the next day he is allowing concocted story about imaginary rivalry between local village teams to be posted.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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cic old boy wrote:The rivalry b/w Enugu Rangers and Vasco went beyond football and started from the minute both clubs were formed in 1970.
https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/en ... -football/

cic old boy,

I am archiving that story ooo! I love it. Before reading it, I told myself that this will be biased from a Rangers fan but I am pleasantly surprised. :rotf: :rotf:

It is well told with lots of inside stuff. Had no idea about Ukpaby Asika's views. Wow!

However, there is one error. Vasco was not one of the 8 founding teams of the 1972 league. Those were Enugu Rangers, Jos Mighty Jets, Benin Bendel Insurance, Lagos Leventis, Port-Harcourt Octupus, Kano Pillars, Kaduna New Nigeria, and Bauchi Wunti.

Vasco qualified in the next year, 1973, and joined being one of others (Including WNDC 'Shooting Stars' Ibadan) to replace relegated teams. Vasco earned that by winning their zonal games in Ibadan against Royal FC (Kwara?) 4-2, Sahara Storms (Sokoto) wko, and Kano Pyramids 4-2.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Enugu II wrote:
cic old boy wrote:The rivalry b/w Enugu Rangers and Vasco went beyond football and started from the minute both clubs were formed in 1970.
https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/en ... -football/

cic old boy,

I am archiving that story ooo! I love it. Before reading it, I told myself that this will be biased from a Rangers fan but I am pleasantly surprised. :rotf: :rotf:

It is well told with lots of inside stuff. Had no idea about Ukpaby Asika's views. Wow!

However, there is one error. Vasco was not one of the 8 founding teams of the 1972 league. Those were Enugu Rangers, Jos Mighty Jets, Benin Bendel Insurance, Lagos Leventis, Port-Harcourt Octupus, Kano Pillars, Kaduna New Nigeria, and Bauchi Wunti.

Vasco qualified in the next year, 1973, and joined being one of others (Including WNDC 'Shooting Stars' Ibadan) to replace relegated teams. Vasco earned that by winning their zonal games in Ibadan against Royal FC (Kwara?) 4-2, Sahara Storms (Sokoto) wko, and Kano Pyramids 4-2.
Sorry to slightly derail the thread ....

.... but EII, this "Port Harcourt Octopus" you speak of, are they part of the timeline of Sharks (or should I say Rivers United), or a separate, now-defunct entity? And are you sure about Kano Pillars being one of the founding teams? Wasn't the Kano club named Raccah Rovers? Or is Raccah part of the Kano Pillars timeline?

PS: By "timeline", I mean how one specific institutional entity can be known as Spartans for a while, Nationale for a while, Heartland currently, and heaven knows what else in the future. Maybe the Zuma Statues of Owerri? :P
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

Post by Gotti »

The Eagle wrote:Sorry to slightly derail the thread ....

.... but EII, this "Port Harcourt Octopus" you speak of, are they part of the timeline of Sharks (or should I say Rivers United), or a separate, now-defunct entity? And are you sure about Kano Pillars being one of the founding teams? Wasn't the Kano club named Raccah Rovers? Or is Raccah part of the Kano Pillars timeline?

PS: By "timeline", I mean how one specific institutional entity can be known as Spartans for a while, Nationale for a while, Heartland currently, and heaven knows what else in the future. Maybe the Zuma Statues of Owerri? :P
It was Kano Pillars (which was/is owned by the Kano State government)...
Raccah Rovers were a brief flirtation (owned by the Raccah family) for a few years.

PS: The Benin club was known as Vipers at that time...
It only became Bendel Insurance (and later Insurance) a few seasons later.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

Post by Enugu II »

The Eagle wrote:
Enugu II wrote:
cic old boy wrote:The rivalry b/w Enugu Rangers and Vasco went beyond football and started from the minute both clubs were formed in 1970.
https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/en ... -football/

cic old boy,

I am archiving that story ooo! I love it. Before reading it, I told myself that this will be biased from a Rangers fan but I am pleasantly surprised. :rotf: :rotf:

It is well told with lots of inside stuff. Had no idea about Ukpaby Asika's views. Wow!

However, there is one error. Vasco was not one of the 8 founding teams of the 1972 league. Those were Enugu Rangers, Jos Mighty Jets, Benin Bendel Insurance, Lagos Leventis, Port-Harcourt Octupus, Kano Pillars, Kaduna New Nigeria, and Bauchi Wunti.

Vasco qualified in the next year, 1973, and joined being one of others (Including WNDC 'Shooting Stars' Ibadan) to replace relegated teams. Vasco earned that by winning their zonal games in Ibadan against Royal FC (Kwara?) 4-2, Sahara Storms (Sokoto) wko, and Kano Pyramids 4-2.
Sorry to slightly derail the thread ....

.... but EII, this "Port Harcourt Octopus" you speak of, are they part of the timeline of Sharks (or should I say Rivers United), or a separate, now-defunct entity? And are you sure about Kano Pillars being one of the founding teams? Wasn't the Kano club named Raccah Rovers? Or is Raccah part of the Kano Pillars timeline?

PS: By "timeline", I mean how one specific institutional entity can be known as Spartans for a while, Nationale for a while, Heartland currently, and heaven knows what else in the future. Maybe the Zuma Statues of Owerri? :P

The Eagle,

Very good questions, my brother. Let me address each question. Let me know if I miss any.

1. Port Harcourt Octopus was one of the army teams in those days. The army had some of the strongest teams in the country. This was because the war had just ended and a lot of young men were in the military until the FGN began the process of demobilization. At the time, there were three major military teams -- the LGO in Lagos, Super 2 in the West, and Octopus in Port Harcourt. Octopus preceded Sharks.

2. Kano Pillars was the first major football club in Kano. Here, please note that Kano teams preceding Pillars were city selected teams, not clubs, that played in the challenge cup. Pillars was later became Darma United and then Raccah Rovers before returning now to Kano Pillars, its original name. Thus it is the same team but Raccah was a later name that arrived in the late 1970s but that was after names Pillars and Darma United were used in the early part of the decade. At the time, one of the best players was a guy by the name Sampson Nyior who had emerged from the academicals.

One thing though that I later found was that in recent record keeping even by the NFF, journalists, & others they had the foundation team as just six. This is definitely inaccurate and I am happy that cic's story acknowledges 8. I have record of those 8 teams in the inaugural league and results of all league games played against the other 7 teams by Rangers in that year. But bear in ind that the nFF had never been strong in record keeping. Most notable comment on this is its insistence that its foundation year was 1945 coinciding with the first Challenge Cup contest. That is inaccurate even though our SE continue to wear that date on its shirts. There is clear documentation that shows the first meeting of the NFA taking place as far back in 1933 in the medical offices in Ikoyi. Importantly, that very meeting was covered in the media at the time and can be easily located by examining media archives.

I hope I am not boring you. The same applies to history of women football in Nigeria. This has been disputed and there is a scholar, Martha Saveedra, a Professor in the USA who placed the history of women soccer as starting in the 1990s (associating it with the WWC). I have challenged this conclusion because it is clearly inaccurate. Though I have not been able to trace the actual date of the start of women soccer but there is documentation (Available in archives) that indicate a start prior to 1945 before the British colonial government banned it in 1950. Then there is documentation showing existence of women football club in the Midwest by 1971 at least and then the start of Simbiat Abiola Cup contested nationally among women by the late 1980s under supervision of YSFON.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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The Eagle and EII,

PH Octopus was moved to Jos when the then Third Division of Nigeria Army was formed. Many of their players were prominent in the Plateau State team at the 1977? National Sports Festival in Kaduna.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Gadfly wrote:The Eagle and EII,

PH Octopus was moved to Jos when the then Third Division of Nigeria Army was formed. Many of their players were prominent in the Plateau State team at the 1977? National Sports Festival in Kaduna.
KPOM!!

In fact, I recall even LGO poaching international players from Stationery Stores and Lagos ECN in those days. Those military teams were very strong.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Enugu II wrote:I hope I am not boring you.
Of course not. I actually own two of your books. As they were purchased online, I had no opportunity to ask for the vendor's "last" price. :)
Enugu II wrote:The same applies to history of women football in Nigeria. This has been disputed and there is a scholar, Martha Saveedra, a Professor in the USA who placed the history of women soccer as starting in the 1990s (associating it with the WWC). I have challenged this conclusion because it is clearly inaccurate. Though I have not been able to trace the actual date of the start of women soccer but there is documentation (Available in archives) that indicate a start prior to 1945 before the British colonial government banned it in 1950. Then there is documentation showing existence of women football club in the Midwest by 1971 at least and then the start of Simbiat Abiola Cup contested nationally among women by the late 1980s under supervision of YSFON.
Hmm.

Nigeria is a funny country. The sorts of things that would be talked about so frequently in other countries that they would become common knowledge .... are things that are seemingly never mentioned in Nigeria, not even in a whisper. So you get this funny situation where people are in charge of solving problems and making policy, but when you listen to them describe the nature of the problem, you realize they have no idea where the problem originated from .... and there is no push-back from society, because society also believes the inaccurate version (actually, different segments of society believe different, conflicting inaccurate versions).

Anyway, per the thread .... Vasco versus Rangers occurred when I was too young to be interested. I come from the era when Nationale/Enyimba (intra-Imo), and Nationale/Rangers (Imo vs. Anambra) were the derbies in the Igbo areas. I was based in Port Harcourt, within signal reach of NTA Aba and IBC Radio Owerri, with access to The Statesman newspaper, and these derbies were more interesting than the Newcastle-like limbo that was Port Harcourt football in the Sharks days before Eagle Cement/Dolphins.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

Post by Enugu II »

Gotti wrote:
The Eagle wrote:Sorry to slightly derail the thread ....

.... but EII, this "Port Harcourt Octopus" you speak of, are they part of the timeline of Sharks (or should I say Rivers United), or a separate, now-defunct entity? And are you sure about Kano Pillars being one of the founding teams? Wasn't the Kano club named Raccah Rovers? Or is Raccah part of the Kano Pillars timeline?

PS: By "timeline", I mean how one specific institutional entity can be known as Spartans for a while, Nationale for a while, Heartland currently, and heaven knows what else in the future. Maybe the Zuma Statues of Owerri? :P
It was Kano Pillars (which was/is owned by the Kano State government)...
Raccah Rovers were a brief flirtation (owned by the Raccah family) for a few years.

PS: The Benin club was known as Vipers at that time...
It only became Bendel Insurance (and later Insurance) a few seasons later.
The club had become Bendel Insurance in June of 1972 when the club was handed over by the state to the Bendel Insurance company. What I am not certain is whether the league was over by that time. But note that later that year it played under the name Bendel Insurance in the memorable Challenge Cup final against Mighty Jets.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

Post by cic old boy »

Enugu II wrote:

cic old boy,

I am archiving that story ooo! I love it. Before reading it, I told myself that this will be biased from a Rangers fan but I am pleasantly surprised. :rotf: :rotf:

It is well told with lots of inside stuff. Had no idea about Ukpaby Asika's views. Wow!

However, there is one error. Vasco was not one of the 8 founding teams of the 1972 league. Those were Enugu Rangers, Jos Mighty Jets, Benin Bendel Insurance, Lagos Leventis, Port-Harcourt Octupus, Kano Pillars, Kaduna New Nigeria, and Bauchi Wunti.

Vasco qualified in the next year, 1973, and joined being one of others (Including WNDC 'Shooting Stars' Ibadan) to replace relegated teams. Vasco earned that by winning their zonal games in Ibadan against Royal FC (Kwara?) 4-2, Sahara Storms (Sokoto) wko, and Kano Pyramids 4-2.
Enugu, thanks for the clarification.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Sorry, non-Igbo speakers, this Emmanuel Osigwe interview is just wonderful. It says a lot about what Rangers meant to Igbos. They should have put English sub-titles on it.
[/video]
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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cic old boy wrote:Sorry, non-Igbo speakers, this Emmanuel Osigwe interview is just wonderful. It says a lot about what Rangers meant to Igbos. They should have put English sub-titles on it.
[/video]
Great. Cic, I wrote a chapter on the same ideas. It was titled Nigeria: Rangers, Igbo Identity and the Imagination of War published in an edited book Identity and Nation in African Football: Fans, Community, & Clubs in 2014. It is an amazing story. Even the name of the club is not derived from the likes of Glasgow Rangers or QPR as many people think. The name is derived from the Biafran military regiment during the war -- Rangers. The club was named surreptitiously by those who were in charge of the club then and had served in the Rangers military regiment.
The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Enugu II wrote: Great. Cic, I wrote a chapter on the same ideas. It was titled Nigeria: Rangers, Igbo Identity and the Imagination of War published in an edited book Identity and Nation in African Football: Fans, Community, & Clubs in 2014. It is an amazing story. Even the name of the club is not derived from the likes of Glasgow Rangers or QPR as many people think. The name is derived from the Biafran military regiment during the war -- Rangers. The club was named surreptitiously by those who were in charge of the club then and had served in the Rangers military regiment.
Enugu, I think I was meant to buy your book but forgot. Will order it tomorrow.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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cic old boy wrote:
Enugu II wrote: Great. Cic, I wrote a chapter on the same ideas. It was titled Nigeria: Rangers, Igbo Identity and the Imagination of War published in an edited book Identity and Nation in African Football: Fans, Community, & Clubs in 2014. It is an amazing story. Even the name of the club is not derived from the likes of Glasgow Rangers or QPR as many people think. The name is derived from the Biafran military regiment during the war -- Rangers. The club was named surreptitiously by those who were in charge of the club then and had served in the Rangers military regiment.
Enugu, I think I was meant to buy your book but forgot. Will order it tomorrow.
Thanks. It is really good as some of the top scholars in the field contributed. My favorite chapters are (1) on the Al Ahly v Zamalek rivalry , and (2) the use of music in the rivalry in Kenya btw AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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cic old boy wrote:The rivalry b/w Enugu Rangers and Vasco went beyond football and started from the minute both clubs were formed in 1970.
https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/en ... -football/
Walking to the old Enugu Sports stadium in the early seventies with crowds heading in that direction. A friend calls from a balcony, "Kedu ndi na gba?" I answer "Rangers na Vasco." "Biko, chelu m' ka m' bia." (Who's playing? Rangers and Vasco. Please wait me, I dey come.)

The only game with greater fireworks was the national derby between Rangers and Sootin".

Anyway, cic, some corrections in the write up
Tony "Skipper" Uzoka was playing for CIC Enugu, ie, the secondary school, right after the war. He also played for Enugu Highlanders. He was the only CIC player who started for the legendary 1971 Ogbueze Academicals who won the Adebajo Cup that year. He joined Vasco after he finished secondary in 1972.

Not sure if Charlie "Mortimer" Okorigwe (every Charles who played footie in Eastern Nigeria in the 60s and 70s was nicknamed "Mortimer" after Charlie Mortimer of Sheffield Wednesday, who is said to have shown uncommon skills when the English clubside toured Nigeria in 1964) started out playing for Vasco. He may have. I just recall him turning up as a starter for Rangers in the mid seventies.

The list of Vasco defectors to Rangers did not include the defection of Kenneth "Kendo" Ilodigwe, who played a few games for Vasco before turning out in the immaculate white of the mighty Rangers.

The write up also does not mention that Vasco had close to zero support among Enugu fans. Only masochists like me supported them, and I paid dearly for it during games with kicks to the back, and cigarette burns on my shirt. During the famous National League game in which Vasco defeated Rangers 2:1, I was told--I was living in Lagos at the time--that Enugu fans rioted. A common refrain in Enugu at the time "I hate Vasco--dem too do juju. I hate teams that depend on juju instead of playing the game." :lol:

Still, the write-up is very informative, and I love it. Thanks for posting.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Oga Ohsee, I didn't know Kendo came from Vasco. You are right about the hatred. As a kid, I hated Obed Ariri and John Nwadioha b/c of how they terrorised Rangers.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Rangers erstwhile Chairman BSC Nzenwa used to reside at the junction of Eziagu Dara Street & Bassey Duke Street, New Haven.

We lived a few blocks away.

Vasco's lynchpins John Nwadioha & Obed Ariri used to frequent his residence (both used to call Nzenwa "uncle")
In the early days, Emma Okala was residing in an apartment (boys qtrs) in the same Nzenwa's residence...
Because of Okala (being the most high-profile Enugu-based player in Nigeria in those early days) & Nzenwa (chairman of Rangers) this place became a rendezvous for Rangers players...and Vasco players...

The hostility between Rangers & Vasco was essentially for the fans...the players were buddies...

How many times did I encounter Okala playing draughts with Nwadioha or Ariri or Ekeji?

One incident: a friend raced once interrupted our street-soccer one Sunday morning screaming: "Come o!! Come o!! Come and see Old Ghana (Francis Okorie) inside the car of Ernest Ufele..." (one of a few players owning cars at the time - Ufele even owned a small fleet of taxis)
Ufele was dropping off Old Ghana at Okala's place...This was a day after a blood-fest Challenge Cup final game...

We all raced down Bassey Duke street to witness this "spectacle"...and sure enough, Okala was seated outside his apartment, inside the courtyard, playing draughts with Old Ghana, sharing laughter...
Okala even summoned one of us to go and buy 2 bottles of maltex; one for him, one for his guest... :biggrin:

That was my first encounter with espirit d'corps amongst players...
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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Father Tiko, Ufele lived in New Haven too in the early 80s. We lived in Lumumba and then Nanka Street late 70s and early 80s.
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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cic old boy wrote:The rivalry b/w Enugu Rangers and Vasco went beyond football and started from the minute both clubs were formed in 1970.
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:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Nice read my dear friend. Much appreciated. Thanks. :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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cic old boy wrote:Father Tiko, Ufele lived in New Haven too in the early 80s. We lived in Lumumba and then Nanka Street late 70s and early 80s.
A late older cousin used to drive one of Ufele's taxis in the early 70's (my late uncle who was then 3rd-choice keeper for Rangers had given him reference)...same cousin later began driving one of Julie Alale (Madam Rangers) taxis; a white Daihatsu which he emblazoned "Adanma Rangers"...

I witnessed Lumumba & Nanka Streets evolve from bushy suburbs on the outskirts of New Haven into mainland streets...my earliest memory of Nanka was watching my dad teaching my mum to drive along the network of desolate gravel-cum-tarred roads...
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

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https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/en ... -football/
Vasco was also one of the eight teams that took part in the first ever National League on home and away basis organised by the NFA [Nigerian Football Association] in 1972. It beat city rivals Rangers 2-1 inside the Enugu Sports Stadium in one of the most memorable matches of the season and followed that up with a 3-0 spanking of WNDC away at Ibadan. The team finished third on the final table behind Rangers and Jets, a position one analyst says, hardly reflected the actual performance of the team
My memory suggests that that Vasco win was 1973...Nwadioha opened the scoring, Dominic Nwobodo equalised via a penalty; Ariri scored the winner...
The reverse fixture ended 1-1; Nwadioha's cheeky back-heel flumoxed Okala for the equaliser...
Bendel Insurance (led by Victor Oduah) would claim the League title...

1973 was the peak of the derby rivalry: in 1973 Vasco was at par with Rangers...the 1973 Vasco challenge propelled Rangers surge to immortality the next year (1974)...

Rangers would sit atop Nigeria football from 1974-1977...
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Re: Rangers v Vasco: The story of Nigeria's bitterest derby

Post by Enugu II »

FATHER TIKO wrote:https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/en ... -football/
Vasco was also one of the eight teams that took part in the first ever National League on home and away basis organised by the NFA [Nigerian Football Association] in 1972. It beat city rivals Rangers 2-1 inside the Enugu Sports Stadium in one of the most memorable matches of the season and followed that up with a 3-0 spanking of WNDC away at Ibadan. The team finished third on the final table behind Rangers and Jets, a position one analyst says, hardly reflected the actual performance of the team
My memory suggests that that Vasco win was 1973...Nwadioha opened the scoring, Dominic Nwobodo equalised via a penalty; Ariri scored the winner...
The reverse fixture ended 1-1; Nwadioha's cheeky back-heel flumoxed Okala for the equaliser...
Bendel Insurance (led by Victor Oduah) would claim the League title...

1973 was the peak of the derby rivalry: in 1973 Vasco was at par with Rangers...the 1973 Vasco challenge propelled Rangers surge to immortality the next year (1974)...

Rangers would sit atop Nigeria football from 1974-1977...
It was 1973 and not 1972. Vasco would have won the league that year if not for ridiculous homegrown officiating when Vasco played in Lagos against Stores on the last day or so. Vasco had two goals taken away and Stores won by a goal. This sent Vasco down to third place behind Insurance and Rangers when Vasco was second for most of the league season and may have toppled Bendel if I recall correctly.
The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

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