Copa Lagos 2019: Sand Eagles begin camping

By Akeem Lawal 

NIGERIA’S beach soccer team, Super Sand Eagles commenced their camping on Monday ahead the 2019 edition of the Copa Lagos Beach Soccer tournament billed to hold at Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island, Lagos from 1st to 3rd November.

The two-time African champion will face defending World Champion Brazil, England and five-time African champion, Senegal in the three-day event which will also serve as preparation for the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup scheduled to hold in Paraguay between 21st November and 1st December, 2019.

Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com reports that only 15 out of the 20 players invited for the tournament participated in the first training session held at Ibeju-Lekki Beach, Lagos State Monday evening.

Head Coach of the team, Audu Adamu, who informed Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com that full training session will commence on Tuesday, said his team will be up to the task despite starting the camping very late.

“We have resumed camping today with 15 players and the remaining five players are expected later in the day in time for our full session tomorrow morning. Abu Azeez and Paul Danjuma are some of the players in camp.

“We are used to our fire brigade approach when going for tournaments. It is only God that has been behind us. We always give our best at God always favour us. How can a team just train for seven days for such a tournament? Brazil team just won the World Beach Games in Qatar by beating Russia 9-3. They also beat Morocco 9-1 before they became champions.

“Senegal were also in Qatar, they beat Paraguay 3-1 in one of their matches. After the African Beach Games in Cape Verde, they have played two competitions now. How can you beat African champion as they are well organized. Their league is good and they have up to 10 sponsors. So they can travel to everywhere.

“Since we came back from Cape Verde, we have not attended any competition. They only positive thing is that the players are involved in preseason training with their clubs, so the fitness is there. However, they should no write us off because we can spring up surprises as we have always done,” Adamu assured.

This year’s edition of the event organized by Kinetic Sports will also feature Club Challenge between three Nigerian Clubs Pepsi Football Academy, Kebbi Beach Soccer Club, Gidi Sharks of Lagos and invited Ghanaian Club, Sunset Sports Keta.