Going by the sparkling performance of the players in camp and a strong case made by Super Eagles boss, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), leadership has agreed that all 25 players who have been in camp in the last week for the duel against Congo this weekend and South Africa next Wednesday can make the trip to Congo.
An obviously happy Keshi, who spoke through his assistant, Dan ‘the Bull’ Amokachi and team administrator, Dayo Enebi Achor, announced that the team will also be led by NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, but will have such eminent personalities as the Senate Committee Chairman on Sports, Sen Ibrahim Gumba and a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Sports, Hon Mudashiru Oyetunde on board the flight to Congo.
The chartered Discovery Airliner is expected to take approximately three hours to get to Congo Brazzaville, with departure time set for midnight Nigerian time. A couple of Nigerian sports journalists from the print and electronic media are also on the trip to Congo.
From the team angle, it was another rigorous session by Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi on Thursday morning as the team finalsied preparation for the trip to Congo. He juggled players between the Possibles and the Probables, that practically made it impossible for anyone to guess his start list for the game against the hard tacking Congolese. Thursday session was closed to the media, even as some still sneaked into the mainbowl of the National Stadium arena in Abuja to pick the last minute brains of the technical crew.
Keshi simply said at the end of the training session that the team has worked hard enough and the result will show on Saturday. “Tell Nigerians to just pray for the team and have the believe that we can deliver”, he declared.