The Nigerian men’s soccer team had quite the Thursday.
When they day started, they were in Atlanta. Here’s the thing: they had a soccer match later in the day… in Brazil for the Olympics. You don’t have to be a geography wizard to know that Georgia and Brazil aren’t very close to each other.
Here’s what happened regarding the team flight:
Because the charter airline that was supposed to fly the team hasn’t been paid yet, the Nigerian men’s soccer team is currently stranded at Atlanta International Airport.
The Nigeria Football Federation claimed that a “logistical mix-up” was why the payment hasn’t reached the bank account to the charter airline but since they haven’t seen that money, they are not flying the team to Brazil.
After some uncertainty, it appears alternate plans were made so Nigeria can still head to Brazil. After a replacement plane was reportedly “too small,” the team now has a new flight out of Delta Airlines that’s set to take off at 7 AM ET Thursday morning.
When the Nigerian soccer team got stuck, Delta got to work.#StrandedDreamTeam ✈️ #LandedDreamTeam pic.twitter.com/r6qTi6EIH2
— Delta (@Delta) August 4, 2016
How the Dream Team managed themselves while airborne pic.twitter.com/nA5vS8Bd47
— Timi Ebikagboro (@ebikagboro) August 5, 2016
Well, they indeed got on that new flight, and arrived in Brazil with under seven hours until their opening match against Japan. So, they were able to make their match, but when they were arrived… they were welcomed with the wrong national anthem:
Anthem mixup for Nigeria. Can it get worse? #Rio2016 #Olympics — Bolarinwa Olajide (@iambolar) August 5, 2016
They play the wrong anthem for Nigeria! Why am I not surprised? @Olympics @Rio2016_en — Osasu Obayiuwana (@osasuo) August 5, 2016
That wasn’t the #NGR national anthem. Sort it out @Rio2016_en! Grr. #Rio2016 #NGRJPN
— Nkem Ifejika (@nkemifejika) August 5, 2016
It’s good to see the actual Olympic Games are already going as smoothly as everything else has been in Rio!
As for the match, Nigeria came away with a 5-4 win over Japan. That’s pretty damn impressive after the day they had. Imagine that jet lag and then having to immediately run miles on a soccer field, in the freakin’ Olympics.
Now, could we please get the correct national anthem for their next match?
