Yesterday was a very busy day inside the Helnan Palestine Hotel, the camp of the Super Eagles in Alexandria.
The day was set aside for the players and the media to meet, interact and chat. The usually very quiet lobby of the hotel was turned into several small studio sets, each manned by reporters from all over Africa. Toyin Ibitoye, the Media Officer of the Super Eagles, has done a great job, creating this opportunity, and arranging it in such a way that the journalists have a field day to meet any of the players and conduct a one-on-one interview. So, for the first time since the championship began, most of the players were milling around the lobby holding interviews and getting very close to the few friendly fans and visitors that ‘smuggled’ themselves in as emergency journalists. It was a very busy day for the players in that regard.
This morning, however, the mood has changed. The hotel environment has gone back to its solitude ways. There are hardly any visitors left and in sight. The players have descended once again into the belly of the hotel, away from prying eyes to concentrate on the next match which they are taking as seriously as any other match so far. $10,000 is motivation enough for anybody to take such a match seriously and do everything to win it! That’s how much each one of the Eagles will get for taking down Madagascar, all idea of the team being the weakest in the group set aside. They can’t wait for Sunday to come. That’s the spirit in the camp.
Training resumes today and the whole squad is healthy and available to Gernot Rohr. Egypt has been the best of times for the German, so far! It is still early in the morning. The fly on the wall is waiting for some action to happen. It tells me the Sun has woken up in the East, its yellow, a flood against the horizon. The Eagles are yet to emerge from their rooms. When they do, it will let me know.
Till then, don’t forget to visit www.mathematical7.com. It is filling up with literature and exclusive videos.
Segun Odegbami
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