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Nigeria: Iran Wants Dream Team for Friendly
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This Day (Lagos)
4 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
Olawale Ajimotokan
Lagos
Dream Team of Nigeria is pondering a friendly request against Iran later this month to make up for the proposed training tour of the United States which was dramatically called off last night.
Though details of the friendly are sketchy, THISDAYSports understands that the match is planned to be played when the team begins its final push for the Olympic Games during a training tour of South Korea. The team will round up its preparations for the Olympics with a friendly against their Chinese counterparts on August 2 in Beijing.
Though Iran will not be at the Games after losing one of the three Asian slots to Australia, the side will look to rebuild for the future by taking on Nigeria, which won the Olympic soccer gold at Atlanta'96 and is one of the favourites for the gold at Beijing.
The entire Nigerian contingent to Beijing will proceed on a pre-Olympics Games training tour of Korea from July 14.
The Dream Team coached by Samson Siasia was due to travel to the United States next week Monday to participate in an invitational tournament.
But THISDAYSports learnt last night that the trip ended in a top spin due to visa hitches.
The players were expecting their visas to be issued in Abuja today by the US Embassy, but the arrangement turned out to an 'April Fool' as the Embassy will not open in observance of the US Independence Day.
A team official attributed the visa lapse to the NFA protocol department wondering that the infeasibility of today's appointment should have dawned on them since the Embassy would be closed for a national public holiday.
It is the second time the Dream Team would have its trip to the US botched by visa arrangement. The team was earlier billed to participate at the US Invitational tournament in March to spice them for the final continental Olympic onslaught against South Africa.
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The Dream Team in May won the Malaysian Eight-nation tournament by beating Australia and was recently in Portugal on a training tour as part of its programme towards the Olympics.
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