16 September 2008
Lagos — Barely five days after exclusively reporting that Super Eagles' Head Coach, Shaibu Amodu would be calling up a number of players from the Dream Team IV Olympic squad, three players from the Beijing Games silver medal winning team have been named in the 20-man list of players invited for next month's Angola/South Africa 2010 tie against Sierra Leone.
Also called up for the final fixture in the second phase are skipper Nwankwo Kanu and his vice Joseph Yobo, who both missed the Super Eagles 1-0 win over the Bafana Bafana in Port Elizabeth a fortnight ago due to injuries.
The match against the Leone Star comes up at the Abuja National Stadium on October 11.
Also, invited are Everton ace Yakubu Aiyegbeni, who captained the team in the 1-0 win over South Africa in Port Elizabeth on September 6, and Spain-based striker Ikechukwu Uche, who is Nigeria's leading scorer in the qualifying series with three goals.
Obinna Nsofor, who led the scorers' chart for Nigeria with three goals at the Olympic Games in China last month, returns to the senior team's mainstream, as well as Osaze Odemwingie and Apam Onyekachi, who were both part of the silver winning Dream Team IV squad.
Defender Ayodele Adeleye, another star of the Olympics, is called up alongside winger Chinedu Obasi and combative midfielder Sani Kaita.
The players are due to report at the NICON Hotel, Abuja on Monday, October 6. Nigeria, the only team in the qualifying series for the 2010 World Cup worldwide yet to concede a goal, will expect to take the record into the third phase of the African series which begins March next year, and also achieve a 100 per cent record in this campaign.
Incidentally, Amodu had first indicated that he would not be using the opportunity try out the Olympic players for the Abuja match even though the outcome of the match has no bearing on the Eagles' Angola/South Africa 2010 quest.
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