Onochie Anibeze
15 August 2008
Beijing — Nigeria's Head Coach, Samson Siasia has requested his boys to hand him a worthy birthday present by delivering splendidly st Cote d'Ivoire's U-23 team at the Beijing Olympics Men's Football Tournament quarter-finals on Saturday.
The 1996 champions have a mouth-watering, all-African date with the Ivorians in the coastal city of Oinhuangdao on Saturday, after both finished strongly in their preliminaries on Wednesday.
The Dream Team closed out the United States 2-1 at the Workers Stadium in Beijing while the Ivorians pipped Australia in Tianjin - the city where Nigeria drew 0-0 with Netherlands and beat Japan 2-1 in their first two matches.
Analyses of all kinds have been going on round the world concerning this unique all -African fixture but former Nigeria international Siasia rallied his troops for serious talks as they arrived in Qinhuangdao on Thursday after a two-hour ride on the train from Beijing.
"We had serious talks over some issues and I let out a piece of my mind to the guys. We have to know what we're here for and approach our games with business-like attitude.
"I am not blaming anyone but we have taken things a bit too easy in the previous games and I needed to let them know that we have got to the crunch and it gets much tougher from here.
"It's my birthday today (Thursday) but I'm not looking forward to a better present from the boys than victory over the Ivorians on Saturday", said Siasia.
Siasia, who turned 40 on Thursday, ranks number three on Nigeria's all-time scoring list, behind the mercurial duo of Rashidi Yekini and Thompson Usiyen. He scored a marvelous goal against Argentina at the 1994 World Cup finals and won the African Cup of Nations gold, silver and bronze in a 15-year career with the national teams, the first four as a junior international.
"I played against the Ivorians many times during my days and I know how tough they always prove, even though we scored many famous victories over them. We are not going to take things easy on Saturday".
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