Newcastle (UK) - Chelsea and Nigerian ace midfielder, Mikel Obi’s hopes of wrestling the titke away from premiership rival, Manchester United, was kept alive with goals from Michael Ballack and Florent Malouda which handed Chelsea a deserved win against Newcastle, and ensured the title race will go down to the final day.

The win moved Chelsea level on points with Manchester United, though their goal difference is vastly inferior.  Manchester United, travel to Wigan on Sunday knowing a victory will see them retain their Premier League crown bar a freak scoreline for Chelsea, while the Blues play Bolton at Stamford Bridge.

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Beijing (China) - The Nigeria U-23 Soccer team, aka the Dream Team have been drawn to play the Olympic soccer team from the USA, Netherlands, and Japan in the forthcoming Olympic men soccer tournament taken place in Beijing, China, this August.

The line-up for the group stage of the global competition, which will be staged in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao from 6 to 23 August, threw up pairings that are interesting and exciting in equal measure.

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Abuja - The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) is set to name a substantive national coach to be assisted by two assistant coaches for the Super Eagles, on Thursday.

The nations soccer ruling body confirmed that it has chosen the new boss, but will not name him until contracts and budgets for the new team are finalised.

According to the NFA Chief Media Officer, Ademola Olajire, the coaches comprise of one chief coach, two assistant coaches, and one goal keeper coach/trainer.

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London - A fantastic second-half goal from Nigerian International, Nwankwo Kanu was enough to send English premiership side, Portsmouth through to their first FA Cup final in 69 years in a tension soak match with his former team, West Brom FC.

The Super Eagle’s skipper, Kanu side-footed an easy chance to see off West Brom after Dean Kiely had denied Milan Baros and Zoltan Gera had failed to clear.

Baros, who looked to have handled in the build-up to the goal, missed a simple chance to seal the win. They were almost made to pay but Robert Koren’s shot hit the bar and Ishmael Miller fired wide late on.

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Mali - Nigerian Stephen Keshi has been confirmed as the new national coach of Mali, taking over from Frenchman, Jean-Francois Jodar,  following his acceptance and subsequent signing of a two-year deal.

Keshi will reportedly asking for approximately US$28,000 a month for the two-year contract.

All issues revolving round his salary and allowance has now been resolved and the former Nigerian international and Super Eagle’s skipper is to begin work immediately to prepare the Malian National football team for their upcoming 2010 World cup qualifier against Congo in June.

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