The delegation of Nigeria’s Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles, has arrived in Los Angeles, United States of America for Saturday’s international friendly match taking place at the imposing Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, simply known as LA Coliseum.
Organizers expect a full house at the 77,500-capacity LA Coliseum at Saturday’s match, which would make it the most-attended game globally since the restrictions that followed the coronavirus pandemic that broke out last year.
Nigeria’s delegation has 22 players and a number of officials, including the Nigeria Football Federation General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi.
The President of the NFF and FIFA Council Member, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, who honoured an invite by the Government of the State of Maryland in Baltimore on Wednesday, will join up with the contingent in Los Angeles on Friday.
As a result of injury to goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa, the NFF had to fast-track National Exempt papers for Tottenham Hotspur of England U23 goalkeeper, Joshua Oluwayemi.
He is expected in the team hotel in Los Angeles on Friday to beef up the goalkeeping department that has only Enyimba FC’s John Noble and Lobi Stars’ Stanley Nwabali.
NFF’s FIFAMatch Agent, Jairo Pachon of Eurodata Sport, has now confirmed that the match will kick off at 8pm LA time on Saturday (4am in Nigeria on Sunday).
It will be the sixth confrontation between the senior teams of both countries, four of which have ended in draws.
The only win in the series, 2-1, went to Mexico at a US Gold Cup encounter in Dallas (State of Texas) on June 24, 1995.
Close-fought confrontations include a 1-1 draw at the FIFA Intercontinental Tournament for the King Fahd Cup (now FIFA Confederations Cup) in Saudi Arabia on January 13, 1995 (Mexico prevailed 5-4 on penalties in the quarter final match), and 0-0 draws in friendly matches in Houston and Atlanta the previous decade.
A friendly game in Mexico also ended 2-2.