Organizers of the much anticipated international friendly between the Nigeria U-17 squad, Golden Eaglets and their Argentine counterparts were yesterday forced to call off the match at the last minute due to inclement weather conditions.
Temperature dropped drastically in the early hours of Tuesday in Buenos Aires and rainstorm, according to weather report, was being expected later in the day, forcing a postponement of the game till Wednesday.
The friendly between the two FIFA U-17 World Cup-bound teams is still expected to take place barring any other force majeure at the earlier stipulated time of 3:30pm (7:30pm Nigerian time) and at the same venue – the Argentina Football Association (AFA) Training Centre at Ezeiza, which is about one hour away by road from the Golden Eaglets’ camp at Buenos Aires Football located in Tigre on the outskirts of the capital.
Golden Eaglets Head Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, however reiterated that the choice of Buenos Aires as the team’s pre-World cup camping site was good since it would help the players to adjust to the weather condition which is similar to that of Chile.
“We have to remain focused. Gradually, the boys are getting used to the cold weather which they were not used to before now,” Amuneke told thenff.com. “Now, they have to forget about the sunny weather back home and I’m happy they are adjusting well though it was initially difficult for some of them when we arrived on Friday.”
The Eaglets’ final list of 21 players will be released before the team departs for Chile from Buenos Aires.
