Keshi, Eagles parley over Zambia game, as Abdullahi, Maigari motivate team

Keshi-24-01-13SUPER Eagles coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, and all the 23 players listed for the on-going Nations Cup in South Africa on Tuesday evening held a positive showdown talk aimed at refocusing the team for the remainder of the tournament.

The talks, held at the training pitch of the Ingwenyama Sports and Leisure Club, where the team is camped, was exclusively for players, technical officials and the team psychologist. Other officials were at a shouting distance as Keshi and his warriors exchanged ideas on how best to deliver the goods at the Nations Cup.

At the end of the session, which lasted over 30 minutes, Keshi and the players went straight into the business of the day, training.

The coach was to reveal later that the meeting was aimed at ensuring that the team excelled and was very positive.

Speaking after the parley, striker Brown Ideye urged Nigerians to keep supporting the team as it was focused on ensuring a good outing at AFCON 2013.

“We know the expectations are high but our opponents are not also sleeping, so Nigerians must be a little patient with the team,” he said.

As training progressed, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Aminu Maigari, arrived with Vice President, Mike Umeh, Media Committee Chairman, Emeka Inyama, Finance Committee Chairman, Shehu Adamu, two other Executive Committee members and NFF Director, Technical, Emmanuel Ikpeme, to watch the session.

After the training session, Maigari took time off to address the players and assure them that the nation still expected them to do well at the championship despite drawing the first game against Burkina Faso.

“We have confidence in the abilities of this team to do Nigeria proud here, so we must go ahead and not only win our next game but do so in style,” he said.

Just as Maigari was rounding off his address, Sports Minister and Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Bolaji Abdulahi, called in and spoke to the players on speakerphone.

Like a general addressing his troops, he told the players to forget the game against the Burkinabes and focus on their remaining group games as the tournament has proven to be one full of surprises.

“The entire country from President Goodluck Jonathan down to the pepper seller in the remotest part of Nigeria is solidly behind you,” he said.

Keshi thanked the minister and the NFF president for keeping faith with the team and assured that they will not disappoint.

Team Skipper, Joseph Yobo, spoke in similar vein, assuring that as professionals he and his teammates had forgotten the result of the first game and were looking for better results in their subsequent encounters.