African
champions Nigeria are battle-ready to confront CONCACAF champions Mexico in a
prestigeous, high-profile international friendly match at the Reliant Stadium
in Houston, Texas, United States of America tomorrow.
Kicked-off: 2am Saturday in Nigeria
The
Super Eagles’ contingent to the match arrived in the United States of America
on Tuesday afternoon, landing at the Houston International Airport at exactly
2:40pm local time (8:40pm Nigeria time) after an 11-hour flight from Frankfurt,
Germany.
The
team was received by Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Chief
Emeka Inyama, and Mr. Jairo Pachon, NFF’s FIFA Match Agent who is organizing
the big match alongside the Match Agent of Federacion Mexicana de Futball
Association, Mexico’s football body.
After
airport formalities, the delegation was driven to its The WestinGalleria hotel
in West Alabama and immediately had lunch. In order toshake off jet-lag, the
team set out for evening training and also trained on Wednesday evening, to get
used to evening period of the match.
Ukraine-based
forward Brown Ideye also joined the team almost immediately, and Head Coach
Keshi said he is confident the African champions would do the continent proud
in the ‘Game of Continental Kings’.
“We
are here to give a good account of ourselves as a team and also as the champion
team of Africa. Definitely, we want to take a look at a couple of new players
and see what they have to offer. But we take this match serious as it will
prepare us for crucial encounters in the next few weeks,” Keshi told the media
at the Houston International Airport.
Nigeria
play Kenya and Namibia away in crucial 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches
on June 5 and June 12 respectively, before flying into Brazil through South
Africa.
The
two teams are preparing for big dates in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup
tournament in Brazil, with Nigeria to play World and European champions Spain,
South American champions Uruguay and Oceania champions Tahiti in Group B.
Mexico,
in Group A, will clash with host Brazil and Italy (who have NINE World Cup
titles between them) as well as Asian champions Japan.
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