Thursday in Morocco was a pretty straight-forward day for me. It was always going to be, because I knew the bulk of the work to be done before Friday (which is match day for Nigeria) must be accomplished.
I slept pretty late by my schedule around 2:30am local time and woke around 7am. We planned to be at the Stadium by 9am for the press conferences of all Group C teams starting that time and we got there right on time.
First was to get my accreditation tag which didn’t take me more than five minutes and we were set for the press briefing. Quite a few of us were there – Five Nigerians and about five others.
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They were brief, in fact Rwanda lasted less than ten minutes. Nigeria was to do last and we tried in our own way to drill Salisu Yusuf who was honest with many of his answers. The day was all about moving from our Hotel Appart base to the stadium and back to base.
We were through with the press briefing by around 11:45am so we returned to the hotel and returned back to the stadium around 4pm for the Eagles training session. The cabs were like a mini-Uber arrangement. Your money reads on the meter and you know what you will pay – an average of 20 dirhams per trip.
At the Eagles training. Noticed Salisu and Oga Toyin Ibitoye?
By the way, whoever is coming from Nigeria should bring ‘soup ingredients’ for us so we can have some Eba here. All I’ve been eating are Tea, Bread and Noodles. The Garri I brought is still waiting to be unleashed but the best way to do so in this cold weather is inside hot water. Five more Nigerian journalists arrived on Thursday and they were nice enough to bring more Noodles and Bread for us.
The most interesting fact of the day was when at about 5:15pm, we were anxious about the arrival of the new contingent from Nigeria because it was getting dark. I had to check and recheck on clocks on my gadgets to be able to believe it was not yet 7pm.
It’s been a work day throughout for me but on the advice of one of my bosses, Kester Buzugbe, tea has been my companion. I’ve taken no fewer than seven cups of tea by 11:15pm (that I’m typing this) and I still plan to take one more so I can dream of Super Eagles parting the Mediterranean Knights from Libya into two on Friday. I trust my Thursday dreams.
That’s the much for Day 2 and I must confess I’m scared ahead of Day 3. Not about the match but about the cold that awaits at the stadium. The times spent at the Stade Ibn Batouta on Thursday were the coldest I’ve spent in Morocco and I’ve been promised by those present for the first game that I ‘will see’ real cold on Match Day. So #PrayForFisco
Have a good Friday and do support the Super Eagles today.
ALOHA
