The Nigeria U23 Olympic team is scheduled to play Japan at 9 p.m. Friday in Manaus, north of Rio where the Olympic Games are held.
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Nigeria’s Olympic soccer team is in a race against time to make it to their first match of the tournament after flight and organization problems kept them from taking their original flight to Brazil.
This Nigeria U-23 side is out to win Gold medal in the Olympics just like the Dream Team did in Atlanta 96.
The similarities did not end there.
However, according to the statement, the NFF decided against that and was thinking of either taking the whole team to Brazil or chartering a private plane for it.
He said the Nigerian team believed they could get tickets last minute as they do in their home country.
Japan never gave up and in the fifth minute of injury time, substitute Musashi Suzuki curled in his shot from the top of the area after cutting in on his left foot.
The Nigerian Observer recalls that the earlier arrangement was for the team to depart for Brazil in batches due to difficulties in securing seats for team.
After 13 minutes of the match and a period of four goals in five minutes, a tie game was being shown as the match was tied 2-2 from that point.
Japan were back on level terms through Takumi Minamino on 13 minutes following a fine intricate passes which split the Nigerian defence open.
Etebo who is presently the tournament’s highest goal scorer with four goals made his worldwide debut on 27 July 2013 against Cote d’Ivoire in a 2-0 loss in Abidjan during the 2014 African Nations Championship qualification campaign.
They then encountered a crush of travelers and lack of flights at the busy Atlanta airport, where several Brazil-bound trips were originating.
As for the match, Nigeria came away with a 5-4 win over Japan.
The Nigerians begin their assault on the Olympic men’s title with a game against Japan on August 4.
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However, Nigeria would find another opportunity to score late in the first half as Etebo pounced on his own rebound to head into the Japan goal after Umar’s brilliant work inside the box created all manner of trouble for the defenders.
