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Nigeria: Amuneke Raises Alarm Over Dream Team Iv
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This Day (Lagos)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Femi Solaja
Lagos
Nigeria's quest to repeat the gold medal winning feat in the football event of Atlanta '96 by the Dream Team IV may be dashed unless the coach of the U-23 team is given all the backing to prosecute his programme by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA).
This is the view of former international Emmanuel Amuneke, who spoke with THISDAYSports over the weekend from his base in Spain.
He said that in as much as most Nigerians are optimistic that the present squad are capable of emulating the success of his contemporaries 12 years ago in America. He, however, fears that the preparation of the team is far behind schedule when compared to the original 'Dream Team' he played in.
"Honestly, Nigeria ought to have gone beyond the Atlanta win which is over a decade ago but it seems we are still leaving in past glory because I cannot imagine why the coach who has taken the team round the turbulent qualifying round of matches with committed players is being chased around just because he did not include Mikel Obi? Uncertainty also still surrounds the team's programme for the tournament. "We did not have it like this in 1996 when coach Bonfere announced his provisional list. Yes there were arguments over the exclusion of some players like Finidi Gorge and Mutiu Adepoju and some other prominent players of that era, but that did not make the coach to lose focus of the fact that he had his reasons for the exclusion or inclusion of some players. But by the time we landed in USA for the games the issue had died.
"If the pressure to include Obi persists, we may lose focus and the whole team spirit would be lost just because a jewel must be part of a team he never identified with when the qualifying matches for the tournament were on. "Siasia is a coach that is worth his salt and he and other members of the technical crew must be left alone to prosecute the tournament this includes the selection of players. "Obi got it very wrong when he said he has had a busy schedule with Chelsea. Is he saying his other colleagues have been idle in Europe? I hope he was quoted out of contenx because such remarks can make other members of the team angry.
"However, whether you are the best player in the world, it is your attitude to the team that will make you succeed or fail and that is why players like Kaka, Drogba, Messi, Tevez, Ronaldinho and the rest will hop into the next available plane with phone call to play for their country not mere saying 'I love my country more than anyone' and I think the young man should brace up for the challenges ahead of his career," Amuneke advised. Amuneke, who scored the winning goal that gave Nigeria the 3-2 win over Argentina in the final match of the Atlanta 96 Olympics soccer event, also gave an insight to how the coach Bonfere picked his final team.
"We all knew the abundant of talents at that time but after qualification, the coach fortified the areas in which he thought the team was weak. He brought in new faces like me, Daniel Amokachi, Uche Okechukwu, Jonathan Akpoborie and Finidi George. While he admitted that all of us are potential match winners the coach later dropped the last two simply because he believed had already had replacements for them and the debate ended there," the former African Football of the Year recipient recalled.
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However, the Dream Team is not the only Olympic-bound squad facing financial woes as the lack of funds has stalled the build up of the all the teams for the Beijing Games.
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