African champions Nigeria are battle-ready to confront CONCACAF champions Mexico in a prestigious, high-profile international friendly match at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, United States of
America on Friday.
The Super Eagles’ contingent to the match arrived in the United States of America on Tuesday afternoon, landing at the Houston International Airport at exactly 2:40pm local time (8:40pm Nigeria time) after an 11-hour flight from Frankfurt, Germany.
The team was received by Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Emeka Inyama, and Mr. Jairo Pachon, NFF’s FIFA Match Agent who is organizing the big match alongside the Match Agent of
Federacion Mexicana de Futball Association, Mexico’s football body.
After airport formalities, the delegation was driven to its The Westin Galleria hotel in West Alabama and immediately had lunch. In order to shake off jet-lag, the team set out for evening training and was also
scheduled to train on Wednesday evening, to get used to evening period of the match.
Ukraine-based forward Brown Ideye also joined the team almost immediately, and Head Coach Keshi said he is confident the African champions would do the continent proud in the ‘Game of Continental
Kings’.
“We are here to give a good account of ourselves as a team and also as the champion team of Africa. Definitely, we want to take a look at a couple of new players and see what they have to offer. But we take this match serious as it will prepare us for crucial encounters in the next few weeks,” Keshi told the media at the Houston International Airport.
Nigeria play Kenya and Namibia away in crucial 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches on June 5 and June 12 respectively, before flying into Brazil through South Africa.
The two teams are preparing for big dates in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil, with Nigeria to play World and European champions Spain, South American champions Uruguay and
Oceania champions Tahiti in Group B.
Mexico, in Group A, will clash with host Brazil and Italy (who have NINE World Cup titles between them) as well as Asian champions Japan. Friday’s match will start at 8pm (2am Saturday in Nigeria).