By Abiola Mujeeb
Nigeria’s U23 team will start their quest for the gold medal in the football event of the All Africa Games taking place in Congo on Wednesday when they tackle Ghana.
Nigeria haven’t had much success in the competition of late and one will remember Cairo ‘91 when Emmanuel Amuneke led an exciting band of footballers to clinch the bronze.
Samson Siasia and his wards will have their hands full when they take on reigning champions Ghana in their first game at the AAG.
The current Dream Team…anything less than a gold medal would be deemed a failure by their fans
Ghana played out a goalless draw with Senegal in the first game of the group while Nigeria had a bye because Egypt, whom the team was to face withdrew from the competition.
Led by Okechukwu Azubuike, Siasia has a team capable of winning the gold medal, but getting on the podium won’t be a walk in the park and they have to start on a good note against a strong Ghana side.
The team will miss the services of Shehu Abdullahi of AC Madeira of Portugal and Godwin Savior of KVV Oostende who were not released by their clubs, while Taiwo Awoniyi has been excused to settle down at his new employers Liverpool FC.
“We have a team capable of winning the gold medal for Nigeria. It’s true we are going to miss some players but we have enough to help us do the job, we promise to do our best,” he added.
Siasia will hope the likes of Junior Ajayi, Oghenekaro Etebor and Aminu Umar from Turkish side Osmanlispor to propel the team moving forward while Seun Oduduwa and Seth Sincere will hold forth at the back.
The former Super Eagles has a good record against Ghana at this level as he led the U23’s in 2007 to defeat Ghana 3-2 on aggregate to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008
