Super Falcons head coach Thomas Dennerby has told www.aclsports.com that invited foreign based players for the team’s pre AWCON ’18 camping will start arriving their camp base in Lagos on Monday.
Dennerby who invited a total of forty-eight players for the camping exercise also clarified that there was no way he could have that large amount of players in camp at the same time, stressing that only the best among the locally based players will join the foreign based professionals in the second camping exercise.
“I think there was some kind of mistake. Of course we cannot have forty-eight players at the same time, everybody involved in football understands that. It is different camps but the names were sent at the same time,” explained Dennerby to www.aclsports.com
“Now, we have the first camp with the domestic players and then we have to see who from the domestic camp will enter camp with the seventeen foreign based players that will start coming in from Monday, 29th (October).
“We will then have a squad of like twenty-six to twenty eight players for the last week until November 4 when we pick the final twenty-one players and then everybody else have to leave,” added the Swede.
Nigeria’s preparation for their title defence has been anything but ideal, with the team having only played three Grade A matches (including qualifiers) since they won the title almost two years ago.
The former Sweden national team coach is not losing sleep on his team’s chances of retaining the trophy however and he states his belief that they can take it from the semi-final stage.
“I think we have a really good chance to come through to the semifinals.
“The first game is a tough one against South Africa. I know and you also probably know that they have played a lot of games to prepare the team so we know that it will be a tough game but whatever happens, we know there are two more games to play and the best thing to care about when you are an athlete or a football player is ‘What can I do in the next moment?’
“If we can have a feeling in the team that we should just focus on our own performance all the time then I think we can have a good success,” posited Dennerby.
Nigeria are drawn in Group B of the AWCON ’18 against Kenya as well as Southern African teams; South Africa and Zambia. The Super Falcons will play their group games at the Ghanaian coastal city of Cape Coast with their group opener against South Africa on November 18.
