Pius Ayinor, Femi Atoyebi and Tunde Sulaiman in Beijing
23 August 2008
Lagos — In a tension soaked match that saw Nigeria attempting to win its second gold medal in an Olympic football final, the country lost narrowly by 1-0 to defending champions Argentina.
It was their second meet in an Olympic final match following the much celebrated Atlanta '96 Olympics where Nigeria cut the South Americans by 2-1.
Yesterday in Beijing the Argentineans, however, held sway by defeating the Under 23 Eagles squad managed by former Nigerian international Samson Siasia.
The victory of Lionel Messi and his compatriots means that the South Americans also became the second country, after Hungary, to win the football event gold medal back to back.
Argentina, fielded a talented bunch led by Manchester United's Carlos Tevez which defeated Chile in Athens four years ago to win the gold.
Yesterday, both teams had stepped out to play the first half goalless, until the 58th minute when the goal scored by Angel di Maria separated them from Nigeria as the Beijing 2008 gold winners.
Di Maria collected a through pass from Lionel Messi in the 58th minute to give 2004 winner Argentina another gold medal and leave the Nigerians, champions in 1996, the silver.
It was on error in the run of play that proved too costly for the Nigerians whose entire citizenry had virtually stayed awaked through the night in order to watch the match live. The game started as early as 5 a.m. Nigerian time.
Before the silver feat achieved by the U23 team, the country had won just two bronze medals that came less than 24hours to the kick off the game.
The Olympic soccer final between Argentina and Nigeria was temporarily stopped by FIFA officials because of excessive heat at the Bird's Nest today.
After an intervention by FIFA's chief medical officer, Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai stopped play following a free kick in the 30th minute and allowed players to cool off and drink water and other refreshments on the sidelines.
The match, which started at noon, was stopped for about two minutes.
"It was necessary to give the players a break," FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak told the Associated Press. "We were worried about heat stroke and other problems players may suffer in this kind of weather."
Dvorak, who was at the stadium specifically to monitor the heat and ensure that conditions were safe for the players, said the temperature was 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) when he decided to ask the referee to stop play.
He said FIFA doubled the medical staff for the match and took several other measures as a precaution because of the heat. He said he told both teams to make sure players drank enough water at halftime and during the match to avoid dehydration.
Nigeria almost went ahead shortly after the drink break when Osaze Odemwingie crossed from the left and Promise Isaac just missed the ball in front of goal. The ball came back and Isaac's looping header was saved by Romero above his head.
Nigeria's coach Siasia told reporters after the match that he did not field Ogbuke due to injury concerns. "He woke up yesterday with serious pains and could not train with the team for this match. We would have loved to field every attacking options for this game but there was nothing much we could do to get him back on his feet. The medical team did their best but he just was not fit," Siasia said.
THISDAY learnt that the Federal Government had marked land and houses for the U23 Dream Team in Abuja, but all that may have gone with the wind since they could not fulfil their part of deal by winning the gold medal.
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