It's been just over two months since the passing of ex-national defender Akeem Adams, but Akini Adams couldn't have been a more satisfied brother last Friday when he made a return to professional football. It was a wish of his younger brother who put the request in as he laid in bed in the Budapest hospital mere days before his passing on December 31.
"He left a message with me before he passed away. We had a one-on-one chat in the hospital, just the both of us and he told me I have to let the name reign. I was very eager to do this for him. I have been training with a certain fire in me to keep the name alive and to do what he wanted," he said.
Akini, a 26-year-old goalkeeper, returned to the nets for Point Fortin Civic Centre, keeping a clean slate in his team's 3-0 victory over Police in their T&T Pro League fixture.
Akini admitted though that life has not been the same and he's thankful for his fellow employees at T&TEC, San Fernando, his teammates, friends and family members for their support.
"Gradually I'm getting over it and getting back into my usual routine but it's something that I will never really recover from fully."
Akini has Akeem's Ferencvaros number 52 playing shirt and photos of his brother hung up in his bedroom as well as his football boots.
"It's all there. I will always see his number 52 shirt and his name everytime I wake up."
Wolfe scores in AsianCup win for Indian club
Anthony Wolfe put his name on the scoresheet to help Churchill Brothers defeat New Radiant of Maldives 3-0 to secure its first victory in the Asian Football Confederation Cup football on Tuesday.
Wolfe scored in the 52nd minute while teammate Cristian Lagos scored in the 31st and 75th minutes in the Group E league match at Nehru stadium at Fatorda.
Wolfe, formerly of North East Stars, missed two close chances with only the goalkeeper to beat but generally combined well in attack with Lagos to cause the opposition all kinds of problems. Wolfe played the final ball to Lagos for the opener on 31 minutes.
Churchill, which plays in the Indian Premier League, has lost one and won one in the AFC Cup so far.
Jones gets extra help from Solskjaer
Cardiff city head coach Ole Solskjaer, a top Manchester United frontman in his playing days, has began paying closer attention to his strikers as the club gets prepared for a difficult relation battle for the remainder of the season.
Solskjaer has reported been getting more involved and working closer with Kenwyne Jones and fellow striker Fraizer Campbell in recent days, according to reports out of Cardiff.
"As the relegation battle heats up, it's special sessions and a bit of TLC for the Bluebirds frontmen ahead of the big trip to Everton," Walesonline stated.
Solskjaer shared some advice for his strikers and other aspiring local forwards could learn from it as well.
"It is all about practicing as a striker," said Solskjaer.
"We are not going to start shooting from 40 yards, that is the midfielder's job. My strikers will practice what they do in a game."
Cardiff are 18th on the 20-team table with 25 points.
Cooper hopes TTFAclinics unearths new talent
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National Under-17 coach Shawn Cooper looked on at some of the young talent on display at the TTFA Youth Football clinic at the Vessigny Secondary School ground on Saturday morning. And he was left with the hope that he would be seeing a few faces around the national youth teams in the future.
Cooper feels there is an abundance of talent waiting to be discovered and sees the TTFA clinics as a good channel for finding players who may not already be involved with a local club.
"I think it's an excellent idea to come out to these communities and have the kids from six and up playing the game and learning more about it at the same time," Cooper said.
Shaun Fuentes is the director of communications for the TTFA. shaunfuentes@yahoo.com