African U-23 Champions, the Dream Team VI, will begin their quest for Olympic football glory at the Amazônia Arena, Manaus in Brazil where they play Asian U-23 Champions Japan on Friday at 2am Nigerian time.
However, with less than 24 hours to kick off, the team is still stuck in Atlanta after the sports ministry and the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) failed to secure a chartered flight in time to transport them to Manaus, Brazil where their first two group games will be taking place.
The Dream Team VI were originally scheduled to depart from their US training camp on July 29 before the departure was rescheduled for Monday, August 1 and later pushed to Tuesday, August 2 but the team remained in Atlanta even after then due to the NOC’s failure to produce the funds needed to pay for their transit into Brazil.
On Wednesday, the sports ministry arranged a flight for the team but it was not large enough to accommodate all the players and staff so that arrangement was shelved according to the team’s media officer Timi Ebikagboro.
Breaking, trip cancelled, team heading back to hotel, plane too small, FG hires Delta Airline flight for team, flight is 7am tomorrow 1/2
— Timi Ebikagboro (@ebikagboro) August 3, 2016
At the time of writing, the team has managed to secure a Delta aircraft, courtesy of the Federal Government, to transport them to Manaus and they are scheduled to take off from Atlanta (7am) (12pm Nigerian time) on Thursday with expected arrival at 7pm (2pm local time in Brazil), only seven hours before kick off.
While Nigeria’s preparation for the games has been full of distress and embarrassment, the same cannot be said of their opponents Japan who arrived in Brazil more than a week ago and have had ample time to settle in and prepare for Friday’s encounter.
The Samurai Blue dominated their qualifying group for the Asian U-23 championships, winning all three games to progress to the final tournament before going all the way to lift the trophy at the expense of South Korea.
However, the Asian champions have also suffered some setbacks of their own recently. They were beaten 2-0 by Brazil in a friendly match last Saturday and they will be without one of their star players Yuya Kubo who pulled out of the squad due to club commitments.
Nigeria has a realistic chance of beating Japan despite the travel issues but they must be wary of the offensive threat that the Japanese possess in newly signed Arsenal striker Takoma Asano and playmaker Shoya Nakajima who was voted the best player at the Asian U-23 Championships.
Any result other than victory for the Dream Team VI will put their chances of qualification from Group B in great jeopardy.
Photo Credit via U23 media officer: @ebikagboro
