Moses, Iwobi absent as Eagles train for Zambia
NVBF picks Oyearone, Agera 13 others for African Volleyball Championship
No fewer than 20 players, including two named on the standby list, trained with the Super Eagles as they began their preparations for the 2018 World Cup qualifier against Zambia at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium yesterday evening.
The players that didn’t participate in the training session are Chelsea duo Victor Moses and Ola Aina, Arsenal winger Alex Iwobi, Porto loanee Chidozie Awaziem and Gent star Moses Simon.
In the workout which was open to the fans and media, Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr first briefed the players before they started stretching and working with the ball, then they played two practice games.
Allnigeriasoccer.com reports that in the first practice game, Rohr divided the players into two teams of four each and after ten minutes four new players will be introduced for each team, while the players on the sidelines were passively involved in the game.
There were eight players on each side in the second practice game, the pitch was made wider with a goalkeeper on each team. The Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) yesterday announced the names of 15 players to represent the country at the forthcoming African Women Nations Cup in Cameroon.
The tournament, otherwise known as the African Women’s Volleyball Championship, is scheduled to hold between Saturday and Oct. 15.
Training started at 1716 hours and lasted for approximately one hour.
Meanwhile Super Eagles handler Gernot Rohr says that the Zambia game is a difficult one but the Super Eagles will prepare well to at least pick a draw.
Speaking shortly after arriving Uyo for the crunchy tie, Rohr said: “We will try to prepare well, we will have two training sessions everyday, then we will assess the video of our past match and also the video of our opponent. The Zambians are a different team from the one we played in October last year.
“They are a younger team, they are much quicker and better than when we last played them. And you know of course not all the players have arrived.
“The target always is to win but if we don’t win we draw. We must not lose the game. It is a different Zambian team from the Cameroonian team. It is an even more difficult game.
“They have analyzed us just as we have analyzed them, so they know us better, hence it is going to be a tough game,” he said.
Kehinde Lamidi, the Chairman of NVBF’s Media and Publicity Committee, said in a statement that the team was expected to leave Nigeria tomorrow for Cameroon.
The players are Ladi Jalmet, Verere Oyearone, Theresa Okonma, Aisha Umaru, Chinenye Nwosu, Esther Dusu, Albertina Francis, Mercy Promise, Agera Priscila, and Francisca Ikhiede.
The rest of the players are Comfort Amaonwu, Kelechi Iwobi, Mary John and Mary Ali.
Oyearone and Promise are the only foreign-based players invited by Abdallah to fortify the team.
Lamidi said the qualifiers would determine Africa’s representative at the 2018 Women’s World Cup in Japan.
“The Nigerian team will feature alongside other countries such as hosts Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana and Cape Verde. “Others are Egypt, Botswana, Tunisia, Chad, Congo DR, Kenya, Zambia and Senegal,” he said.
In the statement, the team’s Head Coach, Usman Abdalah, said Nigeria was parading youthful players whom he believed were capable of making the nation proud by winning the World Cup ticket.
Meanwhile, the President of NVBF, Musa Nimrod, has lauded the efforts of the Federation’s Technical Committee in the team selection process.
He charged the players and coaches to be good ambassadors of the country at the championship.
“I have confidence in the team winning a World Cup ticket in Cameroon, having done well in the previous qualifiers,” Nimrod said.
He assured the players of the Federation’s continued support for the team.