Sunday, February 16, 2014

Nigeria To Play Greece And USA In World Cup Warm-Up Event



The African Champions will play Greece in Philadelphia on 3 June then face USA in Jacksonville, Florida on 7 June. The matches will be part of the Super Eagles' final preparations as they set up camp in the United States before leaving for Brazil. The fixtures form part of Major League Soccer's "Road to Brazil" event.

Eight teams will play matches across North America between 27 May and 10 June. Top-ranked African side Ivory Coast, Honduras and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the other World Cup teams involved while Bolivia and El Salvador, who are not going to Brazil, are also included.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is keen to finalise another competitive friendly for the three-time African champions at home in May before they fly out to the United States.

Before that, Nigeria will take on Mexico in Atlanta, Georgia on 5 March where coach Stephen Keshi hopes to give some fringe players a chance. Brazil 2014 will be Nigeria's fifth appearance at a World Cup finals.

The Super Eagles face Iran in Group F before taking on Bosnia-Herzegovina, and will finish against Argentina in a bid to reach the last 16, as they did in both 1994 and 1998. The West Africans will hope to avoid falling at the first hurdle - a fate they suffered in both 2002 and 2010.

Despite losing both their opening group games in South Africa, the Super Eagles could still have reached the last 16 had they beaten South Korea in their final game, but were held to a 2-2 draw to finish bottom of the pool.

Their best outings at the tournament were in 1994 and 1998 when they reached the knockout round of 16.

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