Nigeria’s men’s soccer team has run into a number of obstacles in the days leading up to their Olympic tournament opener against Japan, which is scheduled to begin at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. There have been disputes over payments from the Nigerian Football Federation and the size of the plane the team was originally expected to board to fly from Atlanta to Manaus, casting some doubt on whether the team would make their opening match.
Thursday afternoon the team finally arrived in Manaus, just under seven hours before their match against Japan is set to kick off.