Midweek Report

So far it has been a long week. I had a very good time meeting the coaches, and I actually ran into a flurry of NFA official including the Chairman, Vice Chairman, the Secretary General and many others.

The first game against Costa Rica was a real test. The match started off and both teams were very cagey … Nigeria was getting a feel for who their team chemistry as well as getting a feel of their first real opponents. The Nigerian team list was only finalized a few weeks prior on June 15^th and the team was slightly tweaked with the addition of a few new players like Akeem Agbetu and Bello Komformata. In essence this was their first real competition.

The Costa Rican trio of Rudy Dawson, Dave Myrie and Pablo Herrera proved to be a bit troublesome. Particularly the defender Rudy Dawson, whom I think will be a solid international player after this tournament. Nigeria had trouble getting past Dawson and Myrie proved to be a challenge as well. Pablo Herrera seemed tireless and seemed to have one trick after another.

Fortunately Nigeria was able to contain the Costa Rican attack and score off a set play, but it took well into the second half for this to occur.

Day 4 in Victoria BC

I should have been updating this blog throughout my trip here ... I have been trying to post news but I have been so on the go ... I will recap ...

Thursday ~ Drove up to San Jose ... all was good slept in.

Friday ~ Picked up the car, loaded up and made the drive to Port Angeles ... +15hrs to catch the Coho Ferry ...


Saturday ~ Arrived at Port Angeles and was completely wasted ... I drove 8+ hours ... my friend drove the rest ... wish I had taken some pictures here. I was able to catch up with Coach Ladan Bosso and James Peters.


Very cool guys ... Coach Bosso is the man on the right, James Peters is the man on the left ... Peters role is to watch the match and provide detailed advice and constructive criticism. For this role he uses metrics to detail strengths and weaknesses of the team in a formal report ... he showed me one ... it was quite cool.