Call it poetic justice, call it what you will, it had to be Osaze.

The fair skinned boy of a Nigerian father and Russian mother had so much to prove and on Saturday, fate gave him a helping hand. He defended, attacked,sprayed passes and struck at will, roving all over the place to the delight of his country men and women.

As at Saturday evening when I sent in this piece, the World Cup was on its head. Twenty eight goals in eight matches with thirteen of them scored in four matches on Saturday.

Saturday, I happened on the Nigeria match on AIT.
My family was asleep. Silence all around me as the Eagles took to the offensive. Needed to share this rejuvenation with someone. Yes, I said to myself, this, was our World Cup team.

So much has been written on the Nigeria-Scotland match that I rather move on.
The plans to write on Coach Keshi’s final list of 23 was not helped by the fact that by the time this column was sent in, the list had not left the coach’s head.

Mark Anthony: Let but the commons hear the testament which pardon me, I do not want to read…..For they would go and kiss dead Caeasr’s wounds and dip their napkins in his sacred blood

Twice in four weeks I have had to write on the women game in Nigeria. The last time, I remembered how I was there to cover the first ever Women World Cup in China over 23 years ago and how the game held great promises for Nigeria.

Walter Gagg is a FIFA Director with incredible knowledge of the round leather game.

Yes I did not. You may want to ask, “so what?” Exactly. For one reason or another, Columnists fail to write regularly. I try as much as possible to tell my bosses (Onochie and Tony) in advance, so that they can help me apologise to my readers.

With World Sports on CNN, I have just rounded up one hell of a football crazy Saturday that started with Manchester United thumping Aston Villa 4-1, after the fans had decided that the team will be better off without David Moyes on the bench. ( I agree )

Last Friday, I was in Calabar for the Unveiling of the Mascot, Logo, Theme Song and Web site of the 19th National Sports Festival rechristened the “Centenary Games” This event was significant in many ways. For one it was the official kick off of the Games and keen watchers were quick to assume and rightly too that its delivery could be a signpost of what the actual Games will be.

Henry Agbamu is the chairman SCOA Nigeria PLC. His knowledge of football is uncanny, so much that he is quick to tell you “ I am in the wrong profession. I should have been a coach, not selling cars…..”

I was not supposed to be shocked by the ouster of Sport Minister Bolaji Abdullahi. Given the political atmosphere, we saw it coming. Some only prayed for a miracle of sorts…..no wonder it made headlines.

Before jumping into this week’s column I will take space to write about last week, a week in which readers reacted in their hundreds, to “ Much Ado About A Foreign Technical Assistant”further proving that when the topic is football, Super Eagles, Keshi, Nigerians can be passionate to a fault.

There was no way I was going to write my column this week without commenting on an issue that descended from the blues and spread like wild bush fire.

Whenever Linus came round, of course you can trust that the topic will be football unlimited. This Friday, in the course of our discussion, Linus drew my attention to my last column in the Vanguard, especially the one that had to do with Keshi wearing a suit on the bench during the world cup.