Nigeria’s Flying Eagles got a surprise welcome gift on arrival in Bogota for the 2011 FIFA U20 World Cup when Colombia’s national police put up a super show for them Sunday morning.

The musical assemble of the Colombian police sang and danced in honour of the African champions for about an hour at the Bogota airport.

Such was the warmth of the presentation that before long the players and officials also joined in with some even suggesting that the music was very similar to that of the Tiv in Benue State.

It was therefore little wonder that defender Terna Suswan, a Tiv, seemed to enjoy the welcome the most.
The team will later connect a local flight to Armenia, which lasted about 40 minutes. It was a scary experience for most of the team as the Fokker 50 tossed about in the cloudy skies several times.

However, the shaken nerves of the team were soon relaxed by another singing welcome party led a blind, beautiful girl at the Armenia airport. And again the team joined in the fun.

The Flying Eagles are the first team to arrive Armenia and they are booked into the sprawling and exotic Las Camelias Hotel, which is about half an hour drive from the airport.

Security has been the major concern at this FIFA Under-20 World Cup, and it was therefore not surprising that security around the team has been very tight. Soon after lunch, the players were ordered into the swimming pool for a quick dip.

In 1999, Armenia was completely destroyed by an earthquake and so the city of about 300,000 people had to be rebuilt from the scratch.

Nigeria will play two matches in Armenia, against Guatemala on Sunday and versus Croatia three days later.