Nigeria U23 Team Depart for Rio 2016 Hours to Their Opening Game After Being Stranded...

After a nightmarish camping experience in Atlanta, USA, that included ejection from their hotel, erratic training schedules, seeming abandonment by the football authorities and the endless blame game, the Nigeria U23 football team, the Dream Team VI, are finally on their way to the Rio 2016 Olympics.


It has come as a huge relief for the team, and millions of Nigerians who have had to bear the indignity of the sloppy preparations for the summer Games by the Ministry of Sports, and to an extent, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The hashtag #StrandedDreamTeam trended, inducing the presidency to deploy a presidential jet to the team as one travel plan after the other by the Sports Ministry came to naught.

They finally departed the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at exactly 7:00 am (12:00 pm Nigerian time) for the seven-hour flight ahead of their opening game against Japan U23 in Manaus barely 14 hours away (2:00 am Friday, Nigerian time).

With jetlag and the overall monstrous buildup to the Games taking a toll, the expectations of Nigerians are subdued, unlike the last time Samson Siasia led the side to the 2008 games in Beijing where they won silver.

However, if history is anything to go by, they cannot be completely written off as Nigerian sides have a quirky tendency to triumph against the odds, a fact the Atlanta Airport has taken pains to point out.

Just before the players boarded their flight, the airport aptly reminded the world about how the first Dream Team arrived Atlanta behind schedule for the 1996 Olympics games following a travel mix up, but went ahead to win gold in the football event.

“20 years ago, the Nigerian #Olympic soccer team arrived late in #ATL after a travel mixup. They won gold,” it tweeted. “This year, another mixup. @Delta stepped up, offered charter, and the Eagles are going to #Brazil. Another gold?” they wrote on their twitter handle @ATLairport.