Nigeria’s team for physically challenged players, Special Eagles will step up their preparations for this year’s WAFF Amputee Football World Cup, following the draw ceremony that placed them in Group B along with Türkiye, Spain and Egypt.
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Sports247 reports that the Amputee Eagles’ training sessions are bound to get tougher, now that they know the countries they will face, following the draw in San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico, where 24 nations that qualified from five continents were divided into six groups of four teams each.
Nigeria will hope to enact an improved outing at this year’s tournament, which will run from November 13th to 22th, with a target to surpass the record of Angola as the only African country to have won the Amputee Football World Cup, after lifting the trophy in 2018.
While Angola came close to successfully defending the title four years later but lost 4-1 to Türkiye in the 2022 final, Nigeria’s Special Eagles will hope to overcome the same country, after they got a historic win and two group defeats during their sole appearance at Mexico 2018.
Kennedy Ezeji became the first Nigerian to score a goal in an Amputee Football World Cup game during their victory against El Salvador and the Eagles will aim to go one step better at this year’s edition, even as they earnestly await their resumption of camping.
The team is yet to receive an official announcement from Nigeria Amputee Football Federation (NAFF) regarding the resumption date for their next camping phase, after the squad finished a two-week screening camp that began late July in Abuja with players invited from all over the country.
Sports247 reports further that, even as this year’s championship fast approaches and the draw has been concluded, the Special Eagles are currently on break, while players and coaches eagerly await a directive from NAFF to commence their main training pre-championship camping programme.
Nigeria’s 2018 Amputee World Cup Results:
• Match 1: Nigeria 0-6 Brazil (Group stage opening loss after travel delays)
• Match 2: Nigeria 0-3 Russia (Group stage elimination defeat)
• Match 3: Nigeria 1-0 El Salvador (Historic first-ever World Cup win).
