{"id":1593,"date":"2019-05-06T14:55:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T13:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/?p=1593"},"modified":"2019-07-08T16:57:26","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T15:57:26","slug":"afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-15\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary – Day 15"},"content":{"rendered":"
It is D-Day.\u00a0 The die is cast.\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing more to be done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
From 5 pm today, the world will witness another one of the epic confrontations between two of the keenest rivalries in African football.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday was all talk. Today will be all action.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday, the last press conference before the Cameroon\/Nigeria match was held.\u00a0\u00a0Nigeria had Coach Gernot Rohr and defender William Troost Ekong representing the Super Eagles.\u00a0\u00a0The Cameroons had Coach Clarence Seedorf and their fantastic goalkeeper who has not conceded any goal yet at the championship, Andre Onana, representing the Indomitable Lions.\u00a0\u00a0The conference was a dress rehearsal of the duel, later today.\u00a0\u00a0Gernot was full of confidence, disregarding the news of a threat to sack him should he fail to advance beyond this round.\u00a0 He is going to play his best team today, and following the confidence the players have given him in camp, he believes the Eagles will have the edge.\u00a0\u00a0Clarence Seedorf, on the other hand, has never tasted the \u2018poison\u2019 of the Eagles since he became Coach of the Lions.\u00a0 This will be his baptism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He is cautiously optimistic, saying he is not worried about the Eagles provided his players play well and according to the script.\u00a0\u00a0The greatest stake in today\u2019s match is prestige.\u00a0 Losing against Nigeria is something the average Cameroonian (and Ghanaian) finds difficult to accept, for some strange reason.\u00a0 It has been a bitter pill for Cameroonians to swallow that in the past 6 outings Nigeria has found the formula to dismantle the physicality of the Lions, and dominated their encounters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Troost apologized on behalf of his colleagues for their poor outing against Madagascar.\u00a0 The players have spoken amongst themselves and learnt their lesson the hard way.\u00a0 Today\u2019s match is the one that will show all Nigerians how sorry they really are.\u00a0\u00a0Beyond the press conference, little else happened to report. The Super Eagles \u2018disappeared\u2019 into the bowel of the Helena Palestine Hotel, not to be seen again until this afternoon when they march out to confront the team that now stands between them and going further in the championship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Fly on the Wall spent the rest of yesterday listening to the bets being placed on which of the two teams will win today’s match by the crowd in the lobby of the hotel.\u00a0\u00a0I shall be anchoring the television coverage of the match on Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, from 4 pm, Nigerian time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Meanwhile, the entire MKO Abiola interview, some 25 years ago, broken into three parts, is now available on www.mathematical7.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Scroll down to the video section\/gallery on the front page of the site, find and enjoy them whilst waiting for today\u2019s match to begin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Segun Odegbami<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is D-Day.\u00a0 The die is cast.\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing more to be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From 5 pm today, the world will witness another one of the epic confrontations between two of the keenest rivalries in African football.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday was all talk. Today will be all action.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday, the last press conference before the Cameroon\/Nigeria match was held.\u00a0\u00a0Nigeria had Coach Gernot Rohr and defender William Troost Ekong representing the Super Eagles.\u00a0\u00a0The Cameroons had Coach Clarence Seedorf and their fantastic goalkeeper who has not conceded any goal yet at the championship, Andre Onana, representing the Indomitable Lions.\u00a0\u00a0The conference was a dress rehearsal of the duel, later today.\u00a0\u00a0Gernot was full of confidence, disregarding the news of a threat to sack him should he fail to advance beyond this round.\u00a0 He is going to play his best team today, and following the confidence the players have given him in camp, he believes the Eagles will have the edge.\u00a0\u00a0Clarence Seedorf, on the other hand, has never tasted the \u2018poison\u2019 of the Eagles since he became Coach of the Lions.\u00a0 This will be his baptism.\u00a0<\/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-1593","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 15 - 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-15\/\" \/>\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 15 - Mathematical 7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is D-Day.\u00a0 The die is cast.\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing more to be done.\u00a0 From 5 pm today, the world will witness another one of the epic confrontations between two of the keenest rivalries in African football.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday was all talk. 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