 Welcome back. Time to talk sports with the World Athletics Championships over in Oregon, usually successful for Nigeria, some would say. Attention has now shifted to the 2022 Commonwealth Games, home of holding. In Birmingham, the United Kingdom, where no fewer than 5,000 athletes from 72 Commonwealth nations and territories will jostle for 280 medals on offer as the games begin. Nigeria is one of the competing countries and will be represented by 93 athletes, comprising 41 male and 52 female who are already ready to take on the counterparts from the rest of the Commonwealth countries for the battle for supremacy in nine sports. Fresh from smashing a World Cup record of the 2022 World Athletics Championship, will be aiming to defend the gold medal she won on the 2018 edition of the Games in the Gold Coast, Australia. Also several medals that have just concluded World Athletics Championship in Oregon, the United States of America, Ace Brume will be the signage of all eyes in the long jump event. How well will Team Nigeria fare? Monday Thomas is back. He's a sports journalist. He joins us from UU Aquarium. Staying Monday nights to have you. For the second time this week, that doesn't always happen. Things are getting better. There's a saying I love to use, that he was ready. You don't have to get ready. So I'm always ready for sports any day. Fantastic. Fantastic. You always sound ready. What are the chances of Team Nigeria and the Commonwealth Games? It seems people think the Commonwealth Games is an easy piece, easier than the World Athletic Championships and the Olympic Games. Will Nigeria be bringing home more medals this time around? Yeah. I think you're sportive by saying that. Because I have records this morning to prove that at the Commonwealth Games, you're always having a great time. We are always going there to have fun. We're always going there to, of course, by taking the medal lifting and not just by being a number. And if you take a look at the 2018 edition of the Commonwealth, Nigeria won nine silver, nine silver medals, nine gold medals and four, let's say, four medals. So in total, that was 24 medals. But being frapped out of the World Athletic Championship, when you see the way where we saw the likes of Ese Brome and as well as Tobi Amusen. I mean, sports have been a game of momentum. And for all the athletes who've seen that Nigeria can, of course, to not just be a part of the competition, they can also go there and get the much needed medals that is, of course, deserved of them. And we've seen, like you mentioned, about 93 athletes, 21 officials to represent Nigeria in, I think, nine sports. We are hoping for the very best. Certainly the best is certainly what we are looking forward to. And being that the last edition, we got 24 medals. I'm seeing that Nigeria can get 50 medals the likes of Tobi Amusen for Olympic. And just as you mentioned, Ese Brome, it's going to be the center of attraction. Of course, she has really improved winning a silver medal at the Doha 2019, going ahead to win a silver medal at the, of course, World Athletic Championship. She was also a medalist right there at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. So you see our progress. It is slow and steady. It's consistent with what she's doing. And let's not be very biased by Tobi Amusen as well as Tobi Amusen. We also have other Nigerians who will be horsing the flock in a very fantastic way. The likes of Aruna Kodri, who is the team captain for the Tanez Katigori. He's also an African champion, an Nigerian champion for that matter. So Aruna Kodri is also going to be someone we should also vouch for. He's certainly going to be someone we should bang on. And the likes of Fayebo Ophili in the 100 meter, not forgetting, also in the table tennis. Blessing of Buberudu and the captain as well. Namdi Innocent. I mean, we have stars to, of course, custom with so much gold medals. And of course, I'm looking for the gold. I don't want Nigeria to slack behind the top 10. I wanted to see us right there, maybe top five, because in the whole world games, it's always the time where we go there, not just to take but also to get the multinated medals. Interesting. Yeah, that you talked about the other athletes apart from Eze Brume and Tobias Mousson who hold prospects for Nigeria. Let's look at Blessing of Buberudu, who won the gold medal at the last Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia. Women's 68 category, you know, what do you think she can do this time? Do you think she can defend her gold medal? She's the captain. She has to lead by gamble. So being a gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games, you want to defend it, and she needs to defend it because a lot of people want to be like the Tobias Mousson. They want to be the most talked about athletes in the country. So it serves as a great motivation from what we saw Tobias Mousson. I'm thinking Blessing of Buberudu being the captain of the side is going to lead in a fantastic way for others to follow. So Blessing of Buberudu, I think she can, of course, defend her gold medal the last time she won it in 2018 in Australia. So I think she can do so in the 2020 tradition. You mentioned Arun Akwadri. It's interesting to see he's still there. It seems that these table tennis players are like cats with nine lives. It takes a while for them to go away. Is Arun Akwadri still the Arun Akwadri we know? Because I can't remember the first time I heard his name. You know, he's still as sharp as he used to be. And Nigeria is still as strong as the nation used to be. You know, a powerhouse in table tennis. Do we have some others coming through and what are the prospects of Nigeria in that field, in that sport of table tennis? Do you feel? Bottles, the older the berry, the sweeter the juice. Tennis is not a game of so much physicality. It's a game of the mind. It's a game of psychology. It's how mentally stable you are. And Arun Akwadri, the way he's growing old, he's getting finer by age. I think he's still the Arun Akwadri we know. He's got lots of pedigree in this particular sport still. I don't think that's a question at all. Arun Akwadri is going there to, of course, make Nigerians proud because he's a fantastic tennis player, not just by saying, but by the records, he has accumulated for himself. He's still the Arun Akwadri we know. And just as I said, he just needs to orchestrate what he has to do on the table. He doesn't need to move around. So he doesn't need more physicality. He doesn't even need age to be on his side. He is still the man we can trust. Do you think the preparations for the Commonwealth Games were adequate? Okay. I think they were because I think five days before the event started the opening ceremony. By the way, the opening ceremony saw a Sankara drum. That is in the Yoruba tribe. I mean, that goes to show that you are highly respected at the Commonwealth Games. But that's by the way. But for the preparation, you can see that the Minister of Sports was there in the UK. So he was in a meeting, a particular meeting where he was talking to the stakeholders on how we can improve the game and possibly arrange it for him to come to Nigeria. I'm not sure about that. But the preparation, we saw the team A, the bash A that we had contingent already in the UK on this five days before the opening ceremony yesterday. So I think by that we can see that they're well prepared. The logistic was in place. And I just pray that this outlet as it was said, that the money and the bonuses that have been assigned, I just hope they get the proceeds after the tournament or after the competition. All right. We just came off the heels of the World Athletic Championship in Oregon. And now we're talking about the Commonwealth Games. Also, we just came off a very successful African Women's Cup of Nations in Morocco. We had to talk about that last time. And now we're talking about the FIFA on the 20 World Cup. What are your thoughts on the squad that the Falcons is taking to this competition? Because I mean, some reports suggested that some opponents of Nigeria, like the French, have unleashed what they call a killer squad. Is Nigeria, do you think, prepared? Are we going with the best we can for this tournament? What are the chances of the Falcons? Well, I'm not saying disrespect to your opponent. But if you focus on what you have, if you focus on your strength, then you shouldn't be really worried about what the other opponent is using. Fantastic. Nigeria, of course, made it to the World Cup for the 10th consecutive time. And in case you don't know, Nigeria, the Falcons are featured in all the editions of the on the 20 FIFA Women's World Cup, since it started in 2002, posted by Canada and the United States of America, won it. And I'll talk about the squad. And I would like to start by saying great job from the head coach, Christopher Dangeba, who also doubles as the head coach of the Nazarwa Amazon. So he's got lots of experience. I mean, he knows what it is to be a coach here in the local scene and also get to manage players who are coming from the from the foreign side of things. But if you take a look at this squad, you see that basically they are the home base. Most of them play in the NWFL, which is the Nigeria Women's Professional League here in the country. The players we have, prolific players, are in Florida. Sebastian scored a hat-trick against Senegal in that 7-2 thrashing before we made it to the World Cup. We have the likes of a blessing who is also a very clinical forwarder and also Joy Omewa. We should not really be concerned about the French side. Although we should know their weaknesses and how their approach to things, but we should be focused on improving our strength. Because in a football game, you just basically need to score your opponent, right? I know you need to keep playing shit, but if you can keep our score your opponent, then you've gotten the better side of things. Nigeria take on France on the 11th, which is certainly going to be not the most difficult game, because I think the most difficult game will come against Canada. That will be later on, but we need to beat France and then see how we can deal with South Korea and probably beat Canada to qualify to the next round. There are some allegations of abandonment of this on the 20 squad by the Nigerian Football Federation. Of course, some Adripenic hasn't been busy in Morocco as well. The allegations of the Falcons have had to trek to the training venue at the Moshe de Biola stadium in Abuja with no proper arrangement made for transportation to and from their hotel. We also told that even for the friendly matches they've been playing at the Abuja stadium they had no match officials. They had to beg some people who came around to help them officiate the matches. I saw somewhere there's a friendly plan against Colombia, but it's also been pointed out that two weeks to the tournament the team had not played any serious friendly match. What are your thoughts? What do you know about this? It's always very embarrassing that every time we sit here to talk sports, we will start by talking about the good side of things and probably end by talking about the negative side of this crazy management sport management here in the country. It's quite embarrassing that these ladies, and maybe they are ladies, they are not the men and I think they need more attention. I'm not trying to be sexist right here but I think those ladies they need to be taken care of. The NFF president was very busy but of course you have people working under you. You should be able to delegate duties and it's quite a shame that these ladies have not really been exposed to the friendly games that needed the right preparation and this is certainly going to have a crushing consequence for the Falcons although they did so well in the qualifying games scoring more than the open and not just three goals but of course you are going to play against the world. You are going to play against sides that are exposed to great facilities. I mean you are in a group of friends who are one of the top contenders in Europe as far as women's football is concerned. By the way, the Estina team were just knocked out of the Euros so of course the H football team will also want to do well as well but it's quite a shame that these ladies are not exposed to the right facilities, the right preparation and if we see them underperform we shouldn't be surprised because football is a game of momentum as good as your last game where you don't have the adequate preparation you are going to struggle but we break that coach Christopher D'Angelo will be able to of course help their mentality and let them know that they need to represent Nigeria in the finest of ways and in effect it is not yet over. They still have about let's say 12-13 days to make amends, to talk to the girls to maybe give them some incentive letting them know that they are important to Nigerian football and do their very best to make sure they have the right support. It's not too late, I hope they are listening but it's not too late, they can still do something but for the preparation I don't think it is it is late for the preparation but you can boost that via morale you can boost that mentality going to these games. Interesting analysis by you, I know it runs in the family and always thrilled to have you join us every single week on this segment of sports discussions let's see what happens, let's hope for the best maybe the Falcons will give us a better fortune than the Falcons it's a tough call, like you said they have to face Canada after France and you have the Germans and others lurking in there but I want to thank you very much for your time and we look forward to the next conversation with you Thursday I am always excited about this particular platform and it's seven days to the start of the English Premier League and as you say you are an Arsenal fan I can't wait to see what, Gerber, Jesus you know the writing on the world Jesus is safe wait for that indeed, wait for that, thank you very much alright alright then that's the size of our package and Monday someone has exposed me as being an Arsenal fan well I can't reject it if you check you're the media landscape, most media officials are personal Arsenal fans, you can check that out alright my name is Kofi Bartels follow us at Plus TV Africa on all social media platforms including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook on YouTube, we also at Plus TV Africa live from all of us here at Broadcast Centre in Victoria Island thank you very much for your time we return next week, have a fantastic weekend good morning