15 August 2008
Lagos — Nigeria's Head Coach, Samson Siasia has requested his boys to hand him a worthy birthday present by delivering splendidly against Cote d'Ivoire's U-23 team at the Beijing Olympics Men's Football Tournament quarter-finals tomorrow.
The 1996 champions have a mouth-watering, all -African date with the Ivoriens in the coastal city of Qinhuangdao tomorrow, 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 Ivoriens pipped Australia in Tianjin - the city where Nigeria drew 0-0 with Netherlands and beat Japan 2-1 in their first two matches.
However, former Nigeria international Siasia rallied his troops for serious talks as they arrived in Qinhuangdao yesterday after a two-hour train ride from Beijing.
"We had serious talks over some issues and I gave the guys a piece of my mind. 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 Ivoriens on Saturday," said Siasia.
Siasia, who turned 40 yesterday, ranks number three on Nigeria's all -time scoring list, behind the mercurial duo of Rashidi Yekini and Thompson Usiyen. He scored a marvellous 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.
Nigeria has never fallen to African opposition at the knock-out stage of a global tournament. In 1985, the Nigeria U-16 team defeated their Guinean counterparts on penalties in the semi finals of the inaugural FIFA Cadet World Cup in China, and in 2001, the Golden Eaglets defeated their counterparts from Burkina Faso 3-1, also in the semi finals of the U-17 World Cup. Last year, the Nigeria U-20 team, Flying Eagles edged Zambia 2-1 in the Round of 16 at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada.
Honourable Mini-ster/Chairman of the National Abdulrahman Commission, Barrister Hassan Gimba, Nigeria's FIFA Member Dr Amos Adamu, NFF President Sani Lulu, NFF 1st Vice President Amanze Uchegbulam, technical committee chairman Taiwo Ogunjobi and General Secretary Bolaji Ojo-Oba will be among the host of Nigerians cheering the Dream Team against the Ivoriens tomorrow.
"It is important for the boys to go into the match with a lot of seriousness and business -like approach, and avoid the little mistakes that can cost a team dearly at a stage like this.
"On the whole, I have immense confidence in the team and with the prayer of all Nigerians, we should be singing victory song once again on Saturday evening," said Lulu.
Siasia and his wards are staying at the imposing Holiday Inn Hotel in Qinhuangdao.
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