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  • Everything Was Against Us Claimed Van Gal As His Side Were Held To A Goalless Draw

    Cambridge United fought hard to earn a FA Cup fourth round replay as Louis Van Gal claimed everything including the fans was against them.
    Goal drought Ramadel Falcao who has been under criticism and Angel Di Maria both went close at the Abbey Stadium.
    But Van Gaal's side failed to break down the League Two outfit as they secured a replay at Old Trafford.
    “Every aspect of the match is against us – the pitch, the referee. Everything that you can think about this is against you,” Van Gaal said.
    “The opponents also always give a lot more than normal. Also the fans of course, but that is nice I think and the atmosphere here was fantastic.”

    FA Cup: Cambridge United 0-0 Man United highlights
    The former Netherlands coach felt his side fell into the trap of not playing their natural game in the first half, a mistake he said they also made in the last round against Yeovil Town and in their Premier League game against QPR.
    “We make the same error as against Yeovil Town and against QPR, we did the same playing style more or less in the first half,” Van Gaal explained.
    “Then I have to be angry again [with the team at half-time]. In the second half we did much better but OK we are not out of the Cup. That is the most important thing.”
    Van Gaal maintains the FA Cup is a key competition for the Red Devils this season with the Premier League title seemingly out of reach.
    United last won the competition in 2004 and with no European football this season the 63-year-old remains desperate to progress.
    “The FA Cup is very important – it is the most important title for us,” added the Dutchman.
    “To win the Premier League is much more difficult now, so the FA Cup is our objective also.”

  • Ghana Captain Asamoah Gyan Scored A Dramatic Late Goal To Earn Ghana A Vital Win

    Asamoah Gyan who has not been fit and has had just few training scored late to give Ghana a dramatic late winner to keep alive his side's hopes of reaching the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals.  Gyan snatched an unlikely victory when he charged towards a long ball and angled in a drive in stoppage time.
    Algeria missed the only other clear chance when Nabil Bentaleb side-footed well wide from 12 yards on 20 minutes.
    The game had looked set to remain goalless until Gyan's late strike.
    Gyan missed Ghana's opening match loss to Senegal because of a bout of malaria and although he was understandably lacking sharpness on his return, he persevered until the very end to rescue his team.

    Bentaleb, Befoldil and Badu were lucky to stay on the pitch after a confrontation
    The striker has now scored in each of his last six games for the Black Stars, who did not make life easy for their talisman as they toiled to create chances in a scrappy game.
    Ghana failed to muster a single effort at goal in the opening period as the Algerian defence, well marshalled by returning captain Madjid Bougherra, easily coped with a succession of hopeful punts forward.
    Yet Algeria fared little better, managing only two efforts, both of which were wayward. While Faouzi Ghoulam's early attempt was purely speculative for Algeria, Bentaleb's side-footed shot from inside the box was a waste of an excellent opportunity forged by clever interplay between Yacine Brahimi and Aissa Mandi.
    In an overly physical first half, there might have been more red cards than shots, but somehow Bentaleb, Ishak Belfoldil and Emmanuel Badu all escaped without punishment after the three were involved in an ugly bout of shoving.
    Quality continued to be in short supply after the break, but at least Ghana began to show some attacking intent.
    However, Gyan could not direct a difficult diving header on target and dragged another shot well wide and Ghana striker Jordan Ayew flicked over an improvised volley at the near post.
    At the other end Bentaleb fizzed a low shot wide of the right post after being played in by Brahimi.
    It proved to be a costly miss for Algeria as Gyan ran on to a long ball over the top by substitute Mubarak Wakaso and sent a scruffy shot into the bottom left corner.
    Ghana coach Avram Grant: “Asamoah Gyan was not fit – he didn't train like he needed to – but he's Asamoah Gyan, if you look at the stats and his behaviour in the dressing room.
    “You know I have been coach of some of the great players – he's one of the greatest. First – he always scores when you need him. Second – he's good for the spirit of the team – he's a very good captain.”
    Algeria coach Christian Gourcuff: “If you analyse the match in terms of organisation, we were much more coherent than against South Africa. We weren't composed enough going forward, which is connected to our tempo on the ball, which was too slow, on a surface which didn't really lend itself to a passing game.
    “It's true that in the second half we had a couple of chances, including one which fell to Nabil Bentaleb.
    “Obviously the last goal is very hard to swallow for us. There is no other choice but to adapt. There's no use in our doing calculations. We just have to win on Thursday. A draw is no longer good enough for us. Clearly we have to aim to attack the goal.”

  • TECHNOLOGY: Metal So Slick That Water Bounces Off

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    By Eyizle Ene-Okon

    Imagine a world that would be free from unnecessary moist accumulation, where Water actually bounces off a surface and rolls away, which will often liberate metals from the adverse effect of rust, wear and decay.

    More credits goes to an innovative laser project of The Rochester University scientists Chunlei Guo and Anatoliy Vorobyev which have developed a technique using extremely precised laser patterns that renders metals superhydrophobic: in other words, incredibly water-repellent capacity.

    The possibilities are many, Guo says. Kitchenware, of course. Airplanes: No more worrying about de-icing, because water won't be able to freeze on aircraft in the first place.

    And sanitation in poor countries, an idea close to the heart of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which helped fund the project. Thanks to the surface's repellent properties, it's essentially self-cleaning.

    Ironically, Guo was inspired by a project in which he and a team treated a variety of materials to make them superhydrophilic — that is, water-attracting.

    “We worked with a variety of materials — not just metal but semiconductors, glass, other things,” he said. Even on a vertical surface, “the effect was very strong. If I drop a drop of water on the bottom of this surface, it would actually shoot up against gravity, uphill. So that really motivated us to look into this reverse process.”

    In their paper, the two compared the surface to that of a lotus leaf, which has “a hierarchical structure containing a larger micro-scale structure” and is superhydrophobic.

    “Our structure sort of mimics, in some way, this natural (arrangement) of the lotus leaf,” Guo said.

    And like the lotus leaf, because the laser-patterned metal is so water-repellent, it has self-cleaning properties. In an experiment, Guo dumped some household dust from a vacuum cleaner on a treated surface. Just a few drops of water collected the dust, and the metal remained dry.

    In their work, the scientists used platinum, titanium and brass as sample metals, but Guo says he believes it could work for a wide variety of metals — not to mention other substances.

    The process is still very much of the lab. It took the scientists an hour to treat a 1-inch-by-1-inch sample and required extremely short bursts of the laser lasting a femtosecond, or a millionth of a billionth of a second.

    But Guo is optimistic about ramping up the process for industrial use, and he says the goal for the sanitation project is to “really push the technology out” in the next two or three years.

    And then?

    “I do believe down the line we will be able to make it accessible to everyday life,” he said.

    Watch out, water.

  • NEWS: Saudi Arabian king Abdullah Is Dead

    Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who died in the early hours of Jan 23, 2015. Was buried in an unmarked grave today. The late Saudi king Abdullah was the 13th of 45 brothers his mother was the 8th of his father's 22 wives.

  • ECONOMY: Nigeria Ranked Along China & Qatar In 2015

    By Efio-Ita Nyok

    Photo Credit to CNN
    Reports by CNN less than 24 hours ago, suggests that Nigeria will be the third fastest-growing economy in 2015 following China and Qatar, respectively the first and second. The fourth and fifth are Iraq and Bangladesh. 
    This estimate by this reputable Cable network has incited sharp remarks from Nigerians who are happy with the development and others who are profoundly critical of the submission. 
    The latter class is contending that the nation’s economic growth is always virtual, devoid of concrete or tangible expression in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Whereas, the former clique argue that ‘Nigeria is growing but Nigerians are refusing to see…’. It seems to some that the former class may in essence just be a set of optimists who are not realistic. In the same vein, the other class may just be pessimist. However, this news from a foreign and independent media is a plus to President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bids.
    Be that as it may, coming from the perspective of the predictions of Mr. Jim O’Neil, formerly of America’s Wall Street, who predicted the concept of the BRICS group emerging of economic super-powers of  i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa; as well as MINT group of emerging economic power houses i.e., Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey; it seem to me that CNN may be on the right path in their recent predictions.
    In the midst of a gloomy security challenge, Nigeria and Iraq especially are making unprecedented economic strides. Again, I think why the average Nigerian is not readily perceiving this positive changes is owing to the infinitesimal degree of the growth, as well as the security challenge bedevilling Jonathan’s administration.  

  • ACTIVISM: National Association of Cross River State Students World Wide Elections

    By Efio-Ita Nyok

                   NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CROSS RIVER STATE STUDENTS                                                            WORLD WIDE (NACRISS WW)
                                     THE ELECTORAL COMMITTEE
                                            OFFICE OF THE CHAIR

                                       TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
                          VENUE, DATE AND TIME SCHEDULES FOR ELECTIONS

    DATE: Saturday, 24 January 2015
    VENUE: Eastern Secondary Commercial School, Ediba By Marian Market
    TIME: 10a.m prompt

    NB
    Aspirants should visit the Secretariat for confirmation of their electability status.

    Aluta Continua, Victoria Acerta!

  • Di Maria Will Be Used Up Front Because We Need His Pace "Van Gaal"

    Louis Van Gaal said He will be using Di Maria up front as a striker as His speed is needed to create more space in the pitch for His players.
    Di Maria, 26, scored three goals in his first five games for United after his £59.7 million move from Real Madrid.
    He has managed one in the last 10 and Van Gaal's decision to move the Argentine up front has been criticised. (external)
    “I tried it because I didn't have the preparation at the beginning of the season,” said Van Gaal.
    “I tried him as a striker as we needed pace in that position. We must stretch the pitch.”
    The Dutchman added: “Then you make the pitch bigger, your midfielders can play in a bigger space and play a better positional game.
    United's next four games
    23 January Cambridge United (a)
    31 January Leicester (h)
    8 February West Ham (a)
    11 February Burnley (h)
    Fans chanted “4-4-2” at half-time during United's Premier League game at Queens Park Rangers on 17 January.
    The Dutchman had initially deployed a 3-5-2 formation. But after he switched to 4-4-2 at Loftus Road his side went on to win 2-0.
    As United prepare for the FA Cup fourth round trip to Cambridge on Friday, Van Gaal defended his tactics after Gary Neville echoed concerns (external) of United supporters over the formation.
    “I know all the stats,” he said. “I know that we have won more with 4-4-2 in a diamond.”
    And Van Gaal does accept his preferred system is taking some time for his players to get used to, and added that he would like his players to feel 'more comfortable' in their roles.

  • POLITICS: Challenge The Errors In This Result

    By Efio-Ita Nyok

    In the wake of the academic result scandal that has bedevilled Mohammaddu Buhari's presidential campaigns, it has become important that Nigerians have a look of the perceived discrepancies in the said result. Below is the result and the perceived errors. The red encirclement are the areas that raises concerns to thinking Nigerians.

    The reader has the right to challenge our perception.

  • ENTERTAIMENT: John Dumelo message To Singles

    Ghanaian star Actor John Dumelo posted on his instagram reasons why anyone should engage in a relationship.

  • ENTERTAINMENT: Amber Rose & Kim in exquisite lingerie

    Amber Rose & Kim competing seriously in the nudity market.