Nigeria to Play Mexico in Los Angeles on July 3

By Duro Ikhazuagbe

Nigeria and Mexico have agreed terms for a friendly to be played at the famous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the State of California, United States of America on Saturday, 3rd July.

Nigeria Football Federation’s Match Agent, Jairo Pachon of Eurodata Sport, who sealed the friendly for the three-time African champions announced the deal yesterday.

“We are happy to be able to announce this match, which is a clash between two very big teams from two different continents. Mexico against Nigeria is a big match any day and the venue is class,” he gushed over the mouth-watery fixture with the CONCACAF Gold Cup holders Mexico.

The two teams will announce their squads for the match sometimes in June with the Super Eagles likely to be dominated by home-based players from the NPFL.

Most Nigerian foreign-based internationals are likely to be in their pre-season camps and may not be released by their respective clubs in Europe.

Mexico will play three other games before the clash with Nigeria, as part of their MexTour series.

The match, which kicks off at 7.30pmLA time will be the sixth confrontation between the senior teams of both countries, four of which have ended in draws. The only win in the series has gone to Mexico, when they trumped a US Gold Cup encounter in Dallas (State of Texas) 2-1 on 24th June 1995.

Jonathan Akpoborie scored Nigeria’s only goal.

Close-fought confrontations include a 1-1 draw at the FIFA Intercontinental Tournament for the King Fahd Cup (now FIFA Confederations Cup) in Saudi Arabia on 13th January 1995 (Mexico prevailed 5-4 on penalties in the quarter final match), and 0-0 draws in friendly matches in Houston and Atlanta the previous decade. A friendly game in Mexico also ended 2-2.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, simply known as the LA Coliseum, is a 77,500 –capacity facility that has hosted major international championships of all all grades, including the 1996 Men’s Olympics Football Tournament (won by Nigeria) and CONCACAF Gold Cup matches.

The COCACAF Gold Cup is that continent’s equivalent of the Africa Cup of Nations finals, and determines the continental champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbeans.

Mexico is the most successful team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup with eight titles and are the current Cup holders.

Nigeria have won the Africa Cup of Nations three times and qualified for six of the last seven FIFA World Cup finals, reaching the Round of 16 in 1994, 1998 and 2014. The Super Eagles finished as bronze medallists at the last AFCON in Egypt two years ago.