Mikel, Emenike, Echiejile in Atlanta for Mexico

The Super Eagles have kept to their schedule for the friendly match against Mexico with virtually all the players arriving in Atlanta, Georgia by Monday afternoon. The game is billed for Wednesday in the American city.

The Nigeria Football Federation officials confirmed that Mikel Obi of Chelsea was the first player to settle into the hotel just as The PUNCH had stated on Monday. The midfielder, who made the journey from London with Victor Moses, was soon joined by Monaco of France defender, Elderson Echejile, and Emmanuel Emenike of Fenerbahce. All players were being expected in the hotel early enough with the team’s first workout at 8pm local time (2am Nigerian time).

On Tuesday (today), the Eagles will train at the Atlanta Dome, where the game will be played on Wednesday. The Atlanta weather was eight degrees Celsius on Monday, which was rather chilling to the officials and players that are based in Nigeria. Four players from the African Nations Championship are on the trip to the USA. The competition’s Most Valuable Player, Ejike Uzoenyi, leading defenders Azubuike Egwuekwe and Ebenezer Odunlami; and midfielder Shehu Abdulahi are based in Nigeria.

At the hotel, the Nigerian Ambassador/Consul General, Geoffrey Teneilabe, received the team with the assurance that the Nigerian community would be mobilised to back the team on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Sports has criticised the colour of the recently-unveiled Nigerian national team jersey and threatened to carry out a probe to ascertain why the traditional colours were not selected by the manufacturers.

Chairman of the committee, Godfrey Gaiya, while expressing his dissatisfaction with the new jersey, faulted the shade of green used, stating that it was contrary to the traditional national colours.

“For me, the green is not our national colour, I would have preferred the green that we know, I would have preferred the colour that is in our flag, but again, those that designed it have their reason that they have explained,” Gaiya told Kickoff.com.

Gaiya’s ire with the new jersey is borne out of the suspicion that the colours may have been influenced by telecommunications company, Globacom, who are one of the major corporate sponsors of the national teams.

“I would not know whether Globacom influenced the choice of the colour of the new Super Eagles jersey, but we will look into it and whatever we find out, we will let the world know,” he said.