High-flying Lagos-based football Academy Buruj FC emerged champions of the 2016 Olodo Golden Cup after decisioning hard-fighting Victory 1 Academy 5-4 on penalties after full and extra time ended in a 1-1 stalemate at the final played at the Sports Ground of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu.
The keenly-fought final was a replay of the opening group game between the two sides which Victory 1 Academy won 1-0 and it was sweet revenge for the Buruj Boys as they won the decisive and more important final against their opening day conquerors.
Drawn in Group B of the eight-team competition which was contested for by some of the best teams in the state, Buruj shook off the disappointment of losing their opening game to bounce back and beat Espanyol FC 2-1 before trouncing Olodo FC 3-1 in the final group game to move to the final four.
In the semi-finals, Buruj Sports Academy played one of their best games of the competition to defeat highly-rated Ablaze FC and set up a re-match with Victory 1 Academy in the final.
Apart from winning the trophy, Buruj’s Dim Chinonso was also voted the highest goalscorer of the competition bankrolled by Alhaji Abdul Olodo.
Speaking after the final, CEO of Buruj Sports Academy, Dr Salahudeen Waheed said it was a fitting way to end an interesting year for the Academy.
He said: “This year has been a very eventful one for us and we thank God for helping us to end it with a well-deserved victory. After our foreign trips for various competitions and the movement of some of our players to some European clubs, we thought we had achieved much but this victory is the crowning glory and an indication that next year will be even better. We intend to retain this trophy and win many more both domestically and on our international trips.”
It would be recalled that Buruj Sports Academy was the only Nigerian clubside to feature at both the Dubai International Cup as well as the Welsh Super Cup competitions in 2016.
COMMENTS