八字万年历

Chapter 332: First Training Session with the National Team IV

Soon, Gernot Rohr started making changes to the line-ups of the two teams.

He brought on the players who hadn’t been among the starting lineup of the two teams and he also made the occasional switch of players from one team to the other.

He also gave more and more instructions to the players so that they could get more comfortable with each other, but soon enough the internal scrimmage had to come to an end.

After all, it was a training session and not an actual match so it couldn’t be too intense or done for too long as that would affect the players’ stamina in the coming game that was only two days away.

After the internal scrimmage, the head manager had the coaching staff take over the individual and role-specific training while he left to go begin working on a possible line-up and game plan for the coming game.

Before Jason could join the individual training however, he had to do a quick interview with some of the reporters so that they could be on their way.

Jason headed over to the reporters in the company of Joseph Yobo, the assistant coach who had performed as the referee in the scrimmage.

As soon as Jason walked up to the reporters and they were given the green light to begin an interview, the cameras quickly began rolling, a mic was put into Jason’s face, and questions started flying at him from the reporters.

“Jason! It’s a great pleasure to have you here in Nigeria and dressed in Nigerian colors as you begin training with the Super Eagles. People would like to know what influenced your decision to play for Nigeria despite your plethora of options?” A balding man who looked to be in his late forties asked Jason, holding a microphone with the words “SilverBird” printed clearly on the microphone jacket.

“I’m not quite sure how to answer that, but I have always held a lot of respect for the Super Eagles and their exploits, as well as the legends of the team who have helped the country achieve great things in the sports sector so when I got the call, I came running, eager to do my part,” Jason had never had experience answering a question like this so he just said whatever came to mind.

“Welcome to the team then,” the reporter responded with a smile before going on to ask another question,

“… I have to ask, it’s been less than a year since you had your professional debut and you have already received an international call-up, how do you feel about that?”

“Well, I’m happy to have been given the chance to perform on the international stage so early in my career and hopefully I can deliver a performance worthy of the trust the manager has put in me by calling me up to the team,” Jason said honestly, having it a bit easier with this question that didn’t feel like it required an emotional answer.

Another reporter quickly took the place of the first reporter and asked Jason the next question as soon as he was done answering the previous reporter’s second question.

“How would you say the atmosphere here at the Super Eagles camp compares to Porto?” another reporter asked, this one sporting an afro on his head and holding a microphone with the words “AIT” printed on it.

“Uh, I’d say the training here is equally as intense as it is at Porto, though the physicality here is quite different. These guys are so hard to push off the ball, but that makes it quite interesting and I think I have a lot to gain from training here,” Jason answered clearly.

“You’ve already started training with your teammates in preparation for the coming game against Sierra Leone on Friday. How would you say are the team’s chances of coming out on top in that clash?” a female reporter with a bob cut on her head that was presumably a wig waved a microphone with the words “Channels” on it in Jason’s face as she asked Jason another question.

“Well, I don’t have any experience in these kind of games as it will be my first time, haha,” Jason gave a small laugh before continuing,

“… but we’ve begun our preparations here and the team’s football has been shaping up nicely and I can see the effort of everybody on the team, so I believe that we have a good chance of coming out on top in the next game if we keep putting in this much effort and enthusiasm,” he continued, his accent sounding quite contradictory to the Nigerian accent in the voices of the reporters.

From there, Jason answered a few more questions from the reporters before he was finally released and he immediately headed back to the field to go rejoin his teammates in training.

The Nigerian players were a rowdy but loveable bunch and Jason soon found himself relating with them like they had known each other for a few years and this quickly built up their understanding of one another and further developed their team chemistry unknowingly.

After quite a few training drills that involved passing drills, agility drills, dribbling drills, shooting drills, one- touch and two-touch rondos, and even a one-on-one session between an attacker and a defender, the Super Eagles finally ended their training session at almost 5 pm.

Out of habit, Jason had wanted to stay back to continue his training till late, but his teammates weren’t having it and dragged him off the field along with them.

It was only later that Jason was told that they bus that carried the team usually came bring all the players in the morning and left with all the players in the evening after training.

Also with tight schedules like the one they currently had, the players weren’t allowed to do a lot of extra training so as to avoid exhausting or injuring themselves, however, there was a gym back at their hotel where the players could do a bit of physical training if they wished to after training.

Jason also later found out that he couldn’t even do that tonight as they would be having dinner with the governor of Lagos state that evening which was a welcome party of sorts for Jason.