By Onochie Anibeze
There were issues as the Eagles prepared to leave for Liberia this morning for tomorrow's Nations Cup qualifier.
They were scheduled to fly out on a chartered flight at 5 am this morning and that meant that the players would wake up about 3.30 am to begin to prepare for the journey to the airport scheduled for 4 am. It also meant that the players would not have full night rest 48 hours to the game.
But this would not be a problem if departure time was not delayed and the players would have enough time to rest on arrival. That would put them in good stead for training this evening. The match will now be played on a grass pitch after the home Football Federation moved it to their main stadium, away from earlier planned synthetic pitch on another stadium.
Logistics were an issue the players hoped would be handled better than past experiences. Another issue was the pitch. Advance team of Nigeria Football Federation informed the technical crew that the pitch was not good for quality play. And Stephen Keshi, the coach, has told the players to be ready for African football.
Emphasis was on Victor Moses who is relatively new to African football. He will experience not only the poor pitch but also the physical style of the opponents. Liberia are very physical and the Eagles experienced this in their 2-0 victory in a friendly match early this year.
Keshi sounded the new Chelsea player out yesterday and Moses confidently said he was ready for the African battle. The other information is that it's been raining in Liberia of recent and Eagles should, therefore, be ready for rains on match day.
One good news is that the match will be by 6 pm when the sun would have set. Europe-based players dread the scorching heat of the tropics. Another good news is Keshi's observation on the "sharpness of the players in training.". He said:
"They are ready, very sharp and ready for the game."
The third good feeling in camp was the morale boosting visit of President Goodluck Jonathan during Wednesday evening training. The visit was being discussed both in the federation and the camp of the players.
"We appreciate the visit of Mr. President. It's a morale booster and we will not disappoint him and the country," keshi assured
Vanguard Nigeria
Upon all their training and Goodluck's visutation,all they could get was a draw.shame on Nigeria
I do not know when all this flight delay will stop.this players would have done better if they had the rest they needed.no one should blame them please...especially Nifemi
I was saying the truth Tina