{"id":1583,"date":"2019-05-05T11:54:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T10:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2019-07-07T21:16:33","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T20:16:33","slug":"afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-14\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary – Day 14"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Helnan Palestine Hotel was not the centre of activity yesterday. Nothing happened there except the almost quiet entry and exit of the Super Eagles to their training ground and back.\u00a0 There were no visitors, no interviews, no roaming around, nothing, but the normal human traffic of regular hotel guests going in and out of that huge hotel complex in Alexandria.\u00a0 The presence of some serious security operatives warns everyone of the presence of special VIP guests around. For two days now the players have been cocooned, unavailable until after the match on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That\u2019s the price they have to pay to redeem themselves. Gernot Rohr is still maintaining the strict regimen of \u2018no disturbance or distraction\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0Even the training session last night was closed to everyone except the technical crew directly working with the team.\u00a0 No outsider was allowed at the grounds.\u00a0\u00a0However, all of that protocol was gladly \u2018broken\u2019 by Gernot himself at a point during the training session yesterday to usher into their midst a very special guest whose presence completely changed the erstwhile sombre mood in the team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

As the tall and lanky 6ft 4ins frame of Papillo sauntered onto the training ground, the team erupted into an ecstasy of cheers; \u2018Papillo. Papillo. Papillo\u2019 rented the air.\u00a0\u00a0Papillo, of course, is Kanu Nwankwo, former Captain of the Super Eagles, two-time African Footballer of the Year and Nigeria\u2019s soccer ambassador. He had come as a surprise to visit the team.\u00a0\u00a0He has been in Egypt since the start of the championship as one of the 6 Special Ambassadors of CAF at the AFCON.\u00a0\u00a0With the approval of Mr Rohr, he came to see the players, to share his experiences confronting the \u2018menace\u2019 that is the Indomitable Lions\u2019, and to let them into the guarded formula of how Nigeria, from his time, has managed to subdue and dominate the confrontations between the two rival countries \u2013 Cameroon and Nigeria.\u00a0\u00a0Seeing the nature of the match on Saturday, and realizing how important it is that the Eagles do not exit the championship at this stage, at least, Kanu left his primary assignment in Cairo, travelled to Alexandria and spent some valuable time with the Super Eagles, sharing his thoughts on the very important match on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was a masterstroke.\u00a0 It was magical.\u00a0 I mean the transformation of the mood in the camp.\u00a0 \u00a0It is a 180-degrees change.\u00a0 The depressive looks have disappeared.\u00a0 The players’ spirit has been lifted.\u00a0 Confidence is restored.\u00a0 When they came back to the hotel yesterday they were excited.\u00a0 They joked and exchanged impressions of the little time shared with one of Nigeria\u2019s greatest players of all time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

D-day is almost upon the land.\u00a0The fly on the wall is out early today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Watch out for his exclusive tales from Egypt, and don\u2019t forget to visit\u00a0www.mathematical7.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Segun Odegbami<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Helnan Palestine Hotel was not the centre of activity yesterday. Nothing happened there except the almost quiet entry and exit of the Super Eagles to their training ground and back.\u00a0 There were no visitors, no interviews, no roaming around, nothing, but the normal human traffic of regular hotel guests going in and out of that huge hotel complex in Alexandria.\u00a0 The presence of some serious security operatives warns everyone of the presence of special VIP guests around. For two days now the players have been cocooned, unavailable until after the match on Saturday.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the price they have to pay to redeem themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-afcon-2019-daily-diary"],"gutentor_comment":0,"yoast_head":"\nAFCON 2019 Daily Diary - Day 14 - Mathematical 7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-14\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary - Day 14 - Mathematical 7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Helnan Palestine Hotel was not the centre of activity yesterday. 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