Over 10,000 fans on Saturday crammed into the newly build Gokana Central on the outskirts of Port Harcourt, the River State capital to watch a thrilling friendly game between the Super Eagles currently preparing for CHAN 2014 tournament in South Africa and Amateur Division One League side, Gokana United. The game ended 1-1.
The match which was the first to be played in the stadium, was used to inaugurate the new stadium and lived up to its billing, despite the rather bumpy turf, which the Local Government Chairman, Demua Ledee Demua promised to improve upon.
Among dignitaries that watched the game at the stadium described by its owners as the first ultra-modern stadium to be built by a local government in Nigeria, were Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former Green Eagles skipper, Olusegun Odegbami, who represented NFF President, Aminu Maigari, former Super Eagles skipper, Austin Eguavoen, former African Footballer of the Year, Victor Ikpeba, SWAN National President, Seidu Abubakar, Magnus Abe, serving Senator and several top government officials from Rivers State.
In the game proper, the Eagles struggled to hold their own because of the nature of the new pitch, forcing Governor Amaechi and Odegbami, to advise the local government leadership to improve on the state of the pitch during half time speeches.
Barnabas Imenger got the Eagles only goal after a swift exchange between Rabiu Ali, Ejike Uzoenyi and Abubakar Aliyu fell to him for a rocketer that the goalkeeper found too hot to handle in the 15th minute of the encounter. Efforts to increase the tally by the Eagles were thwarted by the Gokana side, who obviously understood the pitch better than the national team. They got their goal in similar fashion after a hot shot was parried into the net by Skipper Chigozie Agbim in the 18thminute of the encounter.
The second half though entertaining did not produce any goal, with Keshi saying his wards had to take it easy because of the nature of the pitch but added that he liked the stiff resistance of the Gokana United team.
The low point of the match was when Yinka Adedeji, could not start for the Eagles after he copped an injury while warming up for the match. He was replaced by Benjamin Francis. Medics will decide the extent of his injury on Sunday morning.
