Emordi ready to prop Pillars Challenge for Champions League Honours ------------------------------------------------------------------- The CAF Champions League has become the Holy Grail for Glo Premier League champions, Kano Pillars and to get hold of this very valuable diadem, they have a man in Okey Emordi, who has been there and conquered Africa at club level with Enyimba a decade ago. In the past five years, the Kano-based club have made four attempts at Africas biggest club competition with the last three in 2011, 2013 and 2014 ending in disappointments. Their participation in 2009 remains their best when they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League on the back of edging out Egypts Al-Ahly over two legs in the second round. That year Kano Pillars finished top of their group in the Champions League that had Al-Hilal of Sudan, ZESCO United of Zambia and Al-Merreikh of Sudan to set up a semi-final clash with Heartland. But Heartland stopped them 5-0 on aggregate including a 4-0 win in Kano where Emeka Nwanna and Uchenna Agba scored two goals each. Current Kano Pillars coach, Emordi, believes that the champions have had enough experience taking part in the CAF Champions League after four failed attempts. Emordi, who helped Enyimba retain their African title in 2004 and won the African Coach of the Year at the same time, however will not be committed to making promises. I am sure the Champions League is something Kano Pillars, their fans and everyone in Kano including the government will hope we can win. Every team that takes part in the competition wants to win. The Champions League is a different competition entirely from the domestic league. When I won the Champions League with Enyimba, we were the defending champions then and it was difficult because everyone on the continent knew the team. But because we had a large number of those who played in the previous year when Enyimba won, it was good for the team especially experience-wise. For Kano Pillars, we just have to work hard so that we can have a chance, create our own luck on the pitch and ride on it too. We just need to keep the set of players we have and may be strengthen a bit here and there. But it is best we take a game at a time when the competition starts rather than distract or pressurize ourselves with wanting to win it (the Champions League, Emordi told lmc-ng.org. The former Enyimba and Rangers coach is happy that he led the Kano-based club to successfully defend their league title. He is keen on building on that feat for next season. I am a happy man because we won the league again. I must thank my players, assistant coaches, the club management, the fans and the Kano State government for all of their support in different capacities. By Gods grace we will build on our achievement for next season, said Emordi. Emordi took charge of Kano Pillars at the start of the 2013/14 season after Mohammed Baba Ganaru left for Nasarawa United, and coached them to win the league title for a third consecutive season.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 03:59:00 +0000
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