Blow-By-Blow Account Of Super Eagles Training Session, How Team A, B & C Lined Up

Published: October 11, 2018

Twenty-four players participated in the Super Eagles first workout on grass, with twenty-one outfield players and three goalkeepers, at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium on Wednesday evening.

The Super Eagles arrived the stadium at 1618 hours, and training started at 1635 hours with all the players taking part in the jogging exercise before a stretching exercise which started at 1640 hours.

The team was later divided into three groups of seven players each plus three goalkeepers wearing blue, red and yellow bibs.

The Red team contained : Isaac Success, Wilfred Ndidi, Oghenekaro Etebo, Ola Aina, Semi Ajayi, Leon Balogun and Chidozie Awaziem.

The Blue team had Henry Onyekuru, Kenneth Omeruo, John Ogu, Kelechi Iheanacho, Moses Simon, Eddy Onazi and Bryan Idowu, while the yellow team contained Abdullahi Shehu, Troost-Ekong, Odion Ighalo, Alex Iwobi, Ahmed Musa, Jamilu Collins and Samuel Kalu.

The first match practice with the ball was on two touches and releasing the ball. This involved two groups passing with each other while the third group tried to recover the ball from the two passing teams.

The passing team that lost the ball became the recovery group, at some point the practice involved one touch of the ball before passing it to another player.

During the practice involving the 21 outfield players, the three goalkeepers Akpeyi, Uzoho and Ezenwa had their own special training session with goalkeeper coach Alloy Agu. This lasted for about twenty minutes.

At about 1709 hours, the team wearing blue bibs played against the red team in a practice game while the yellow team proceeded to carry out special training on attacking scenarios

Goalkeepers Ezenwa and Uzoho joined the blue and red team respectively in the match which ended in a 4-4 draw, with Semi, Etebo, Ndidi, Success, Iheanacho (2), Onazi and Idowu on target.

As a result of the stalemate, a golden goal was used to determine the winner which was eventually scored by Isaac Success.

The headline for the practice games was Ighalo running riot with goals; goalkeeper Uzoho was visibly angry after he conceded five goals while playing for the blue team against the yellow team which contained Daniel Akpeyi.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel