International Notebook: Dike & Songo'o both in action for national teams

A slate of international friendlies took place yesterday across the globe two of which kept Portland Timbers players were busy.

Bright Dike made his national team debut for Nigeria in a 3-1 victory over Venezuela in front of a crowd of 13,000 fans at Marlins Park in Miami. Placed in the starting XI on the left side in the midfield, Dike played around 68 minutes in the match providing numerous attacking runs. In the 60th minute, he snapped a header via a Super Eagles corner kick directly on frame though the Venezuelan goalkeeper was perfectly positioned to make the save.

The Miami Herald has a recap of the match while Dike also did an interview with Nigeria’s The Nation about his hopes of playing in January’s 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The Guardian also mentions Dike in their 10 talking points from Wednesday night's international football saying, “[Nigerian head coach] Stephen Keshi's side proved the superior finishers, with Brown Ideye, Obafemi Martins and debutant Bright Dike looking dangerous in an attacking trio.”

Portland midfielder Franck Songo’o was also busy yesterday as Cameroon battled to a 0-0 draw with Albania in Geneva. Songo’o was a second half sub coming on in the 63^rd minute for Malaga’s Fabrice marking the midfielder’s first cap for the Indomitable Lions in four years.

The US team also had a friendly yesterday drawing 2-2 with Russia in an exciting back-and-forth match. Roma midfielder Michael Bradley had a beautiful golazo to pull the Americans even at 1-1 followed by Rosenborg BK midfielder Mix Diskerud picking up his first ever goal for the national team in stoppage time to snatch the draw. Watch the two American goals on The Backcut Blog.