4th April, 2013
African champions, Nigeria are putting in place a strategy to beat the high altitude of Nairobi ahead of their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying against Kenya in June.
According to the General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Barrister Musa Amadu, a 24-hour plan is being explored rather than a two-week option.
Amadu believes the 24-hour plan for the game in Nairobi will “be able to mitigate the effect of high altitude” since same plan worked for the Nigerian team which led to defeating the Kenyans 3-2 about four years.
“For the Kenya match you need to understand that there’s high altitude in East Africa and if we can’t stay there for two weeks prior to the game which is not possible, it’s better to move in and move out, so that within the space of 24 hours we would not have any effects of altitude to be able to prosecute the game successfully.
“This is what we did on 14 November, 2009 when we beat Kenya 3-2 in Nairobi to qualify straight for the FIFA World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. This is probably the same strategy. We’ll arrive a day before the game, train once and then play the game. This will give us the opportunity to mitigate the effect of high altitude,” he said.
He also revealed the choice of a camping ground in Germany and explained that it is basically for the international friendly against Mexico and the Fifa Confederations Cup in Brazil.
Amadu added that the camp in Germany “is more central” to the Super Eagles, who have most of their players in Europe.
“We are not preparing for Kenya with the camping exercise in Germany, we are actually preparing for the friendly match against Mexico and also the Confederations Cup. It is more central for everybody to gather in Germany and then prosecute the programmes from there,” he told supersport.com.
Nigeria will face Mexico in an exhibition game at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on May 31 before heading to Kenya for a June 5 World Cup game.
The African champions will also take part in FIFA Confederations Cup and will come up against world champions, Spain, Uruguay and Tahiti in the group stage.