Golden Eaglets tackle American University on Saturday

Golden Eaglets would play their first ever match on the soil of oil-rich United Arab Emirates when they tackle the American University at the Dubai media city on Saturday. The match would expectedly be used to ascertain the physical condition as well as their match fitness after few days of intensive training upon their arrival in Dubai.

In a related development, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has earned the praises of the rank and file of the National Under-17 team over the choice of Dubai as their pre-2013 Under-17 World Cup camping site. The NFF according to its Director Technical, Dr.Emmanuel Ikpeme picked Dubai ahead of Qatar to acclimatise and acquaint the players with their environment before hostilities begin at the 15th edition of the cadet championship. Now camped at Al-Jawhara Hotel within the precinct of the Dubai City Centre, the Golden Eaglets have given the NFF pass mark on the choice of Dubai.

“We really appreciate the decision of the NFF to bring us to Dubai instead of Qatar for this training tour,” said Suleiman Abubakar, the team coordinator." Imagine what would have happened if we had come here just few days to the competition due to differences in climatic
conditions and time zone; it could have been a nightmare for the players."

Indeed, everyone in the team is grabbling with the issue of different time zone since UAE is three hours ahead of Nigeria with attendant adjustment to sleeping and training time. "If we are in Nigeria, we would have been sleeping by now but we are coping so well," noted team captain, Musa Mohammed about the team's 6:30am training time which correspondingly is 3:30am back home.
Nevertheless, the players are well at home with the feeding arrangement provided by the dutiful staff of Al-Jawhara Hotel because this is not the first time majority of them travelled out of the
country."

"There are so much varieties of food to choose from but what we eat is being monitored since we have not come for a World Cup Eating Tournament,” said newcomer, Chigozie Obasi in his usual jocular manner." Older faces in the team like Chidera Eze and Saviour Godwin said the arrangement in Dubai compared favourably with what they enjoyed during their camping at the Aspire Sport Excellence Centre in Qatar before the CAN Under-17 Championship in Morocco.

“I love the food because it is balanced meal that we are eating,” said Eze, the striker who revealed his liking for the rice and okra soup. “What we think about is the World Cup since other things have well
been taking care of by the NFF.”