Last Updated: Saturday,  July 5, 2008

Dream Team IV cancel US training tour

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By SAIDU ABUBAKAR

Nigeria’s preparations for the men’s football at the forthcoming Brijing Olympics hit a snag as they cancel a training trip to the US.
The so-called Dream Team IV were due to play their Olympic counterparts from Honduras, as well as Trinidad and Tobago in Miami as part of their preparations for August’s Beijing Olympics.
“We can’t guarantee meeting the deadline set by the organisers so we withdrew our visa applications at the US embassy,” Olympic coach Samson Siasia told BBC Sport.
“I made efforts to secure a comfortable date for the game but the whole situation has got out of hand.
“It would have been difficult to obtain the visas at such short notice; we tried to get them while in Portugal (on a previous training trip) but they told us to apply in Nigeria.
“We could get the visas here but it would have been too little too late to embark on the trip and play in these games.
The former Nigerian international admitted the cancellation of the USA trip was “a slight dent” to the teams’ build-up for the Olympic tournament in China.
He insists their scheduled trip to South Korea for a warm-up game en route to China is still on the cards.
“We’ll travel to South Korea and conclude our preparations there before leaving for China, it’s only a minor setback but we’ll be fine.
The 1996 Olympic gold medallists are in Group B at the Beijing tournament alongside Holland, USA and Japan.

Amodu tasked on 2010

©2005 New Nigerian Newspapers Limited.