With some luck and last-minute scrambling, Delta Air Lines managed to step in at the eleventh hour to fly the Nigerian men’s soccer team to Brazil in time for its first match in the Olympics Thursday evening.
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The Dream Team had departed Atlanta, USA via a chartered Delta airline.
The African champions will team up with Haugesund defender William Troost-Ekong who had arrived earlier on Tuesday afternoon.
While William Troost-Ekong is the only member of the squad that has arrived in Manaus for the Olympic Games, hours ahead of the rest of the Nigeria U23 team. Undoubtedly, the challenge of the Japanese team will not be underestimated as the gaffer of the Nigerian side noted after the Olympic draws in Maracana, Brazil.
For opponents Japan, there was something troubling about the smiling faces of the Nigeria team as they finally stepped off their plane in Manaus on Thursday morning. It ended; Nigeria 5-4 Japan.
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Samson Siasia and his boys were supposed to fly out on Friday July 29, but series of disappointment from the Nigeria Sports Ministry for their inability to pay for a charter flight kept the team grounded in Atlanta.
“Nigeria has tough skin”, he said. They were with Nigeria’s U-20s, who were stunned by Sudan in July in qualifying for the 2017 Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations. One of the players told the BBC that he and his teammates have been told to prepare for departure “since last week”, but they still haven’t left.
Against all odds, the Dream Team played and won their first group match of the Rio 2016 defeating Japan 5-4 at the Arena Amazonia in Manaus.
“This is a special occasion, not only because it’s the Olympics”, Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.
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Ebikagboro said on Twitter that the players’ performance would not be affected by the extraordinary saga.
