20 August 2008
Lagos — Nigeria's Dream Team stayed on course for a date with destiny after they beat Belgium 4-1 to book their place in the final of the football event of the Olympics and by extension ensured that the nation will at least not leave Beijing without a medal.
At a competition in which the so called 'Giant of Africa' had failed to live up to its name, the football team brought much relief to officials here because for once there was good news coming out of China after almost a fortnight of constant negative headlines.
With such 'minnows' like Togo, Zimbabwe and Algeria all getting onto the medals table pressure had been mounting on officials to justify the N1.7 billion released by government to bring almost 200 athletes and officials to the Far East for a 'sports jamboree' while countries with lesser delegations and budgets had shown that they had come to China 'on business'.
But at the very imposing Shanghai Stadium, Samson Siasia and his wards showed that they were ready to re-enact the feat achieved by the original 'Dream Team' 12 years ago by reaching the football final in very impressive style.
In fact but for some wayward finishing the score line would have even been more embarrassing for the Europeans as the Holland 2005 World Youth Championship silver medallists controlled the game from beginning to the end.
For some odd reason the Belgians, who had shocked the football world by coming from a goal down to beat Italy 3-2 with 10 men, looked a pale shadow of the side that had sent jitters down the spines of the Nigerian technical crew with their stunning performance against the Italians.
But perhaps it was that performance that had spurred the Nigerians not to lower their guard against the Europeans and right from the blast of the whistle had taken the fight to the Belgians, whose only triumph in the competition was way back in 1920 when they hosted the Olympics.
Defender Olubayo Adefemi set the ball rolling when he was at the right place to pick up a ricochet of a Belgian defender's right foot to calmly slot home on 17 minutes.
The Europeans then survived the first half still hopeful after being only a goal down.
But 14 minutes into the second half the game was effectively over when Chinedu Ogbuke was on hand to tap in a lovely weighted cross from substitute Victor Anichebe.
The same player then killed off whatever faint hopes the Belgians had of a miracle in the 72nd minute when he rifled home a bullet shot from outside the 18 which flew past a despairing Logan Bailly in goal for the Europeans.
It appeared as if Ogbuke's stunner was the licence for other Dream Team players to take pop shots and another defender Chibuzor Okonkwo duly obliged with a long range effort of his own six minutes after Ogbuke's thunderous strike.
However, Laurent Ciman ensured the Nigerians did not keep a clean sheet with a face saving strike for Belgium two minutes from full time.
Poor defending from the wall had a large part to play in the goal; however, as the minds of the Dream Team players were clearly on Saturday's final taking place at the Bird's Nest.
For the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Board member Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi the victory was a perfect way to celebrate their birthdays, which come up tomorrow.
For securing the birthday presents the Dream Team will be meeting Argentina, the same side they piped to the gold medal 12 years ago in Atlanta.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
