President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has charged members of the senior national team; Super Eagles to give their all when they face Mexico in Los Angeles (LA) on Saturday night, www.aclsports.com reports.
The Nigerian selection predominantly comprising of players plying their trade in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) arrived in the United States on Thursday morning (Pacific Time Zone) ahead of Saturday’s encounter.
The team, made up of twenty-three players (including late invitee CF Montreal star Sunusi Ibrahim) subsequently had their first outdoor training session at the David Vanole Field, near their Westdriff Hotel base in Manhattan Beach in the evening.
After about an hour of training centred around perfection of team shape and tactics, the team was welcomed to the US by Pinnick who had gone ahead of them to strengthen ties between the football house and some American states.
Pinnick, while addressing the players after the session enjoined them to seize the opportunity that this game avails them and “who knows, it might be your way into the main Super Eagles squad” especially as head coach Gernot Rohr is also in Los Angeles with them.
Pinnick, also a FIFA Council Member assured the players that the Federation will continue to encourage the locally based players with top graded matches like the Mexican game and hinted of a possible fixture in October though he hopes that these set would be in Europe by then.
The Super Eagles team is currently being handled by former Flying Eagles coach Paul Aigbogun after NFF’s Technical Director Austin Eguavoen could not secure American visa for the game.
Tottenham Hotspur Under 23 goalkeeper Joshua Oluwayemi is expected to join up with the rest of the squad before the team’s evening training session on Thursday.
The Mexico vs Nigeria game will hold at the United Airlines Field, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Los Angeles, California), USA on Saturday night (3:30am on Sunday in Nigeria).
