Beijing Olympic This Could Be Another Year.:

With barely a week to Nigeria’s last game to qualify for this summer’s Beijing Olympic (male) football event, Chief Mike Umeh, a former team manager of the Super Eagles, believes history can be repeated in the Asian country with the Dream Team IV winning the gold.
Just last week, the Super Falcons grabbed the female ticket via a two-nil drubbing of the Black Queens of Ghana.
Chief Umeh, who is chairman of the Anambra Football Association, told THISDAYSports yesterday that given the calibre of players in the Under-23 team and the quality of coaching being dished out by Samson Siasia, the present squad was capable of repeating the feat performed at Atlanta ’96 by the Nwankwo Kanu-led team.
“I have no doubts in my mind that our boys will beat South Africa and grab the ticket to the Olympic Games. By all standards, our game is way ahead of that of South Africa and now that the stakes are really high, I don’t see our players wasting the opportunity to go to the Olympics,” observed the former Super Eagles Team Manager.
Chief Umeh insisted that history is not too far away from this present squad. “If you follow the team closely, you will realize that the bulk of the boys are the same players Coach Siasia has been using since his Under-20 team days in Holland. There is a perfect understanding and as it is, I see the boys repeating what Kanu and his mates did in Atlanta ’96 when they won the gold.”
Nigeria plays South Africa at the Abuja National Stadium next Wednesday in the last but crucial game in the road to the Beijing Olympic male football event. Nigeria needs an outright win to upstage the Black Meteors of Ghana who presently occupy the driver’s seat with seven points. Nigeria has five points.
Virtually all the top players like Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi, Taye Taiwo of Olympic Marseille and Promise Isaac are expected to arrive town this weekend for final blending before Wednesday’s cracker in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Dream Team wrapped up their preparations for next week’s clash with a 2-0 victory over a local Super Eagles, handled by interim coach James Peters. The match played at the National Stadium, Abuja, saw Siasia’s team getting off the mark in the second minute through Obiora Anorue while John Owoeri, one of the stars of Holland 2005, got the second six minutes to full time.
After the match Siasia said he was satisfied with the performance of his team.