Former Director-General of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Amos Adamu, has said that he never expected that the Nigeria Dream Team VI would go as far as semi finals in the soccer at the ongoing Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.
The national U-23 team on Wednesday lost 0-2 to their German counterparts in the semi-finals of the football event of the ongoing Rio Olympics.
Adamu said: “Nigerians should be proud of these boys. In the face of the hostility they encountered, they performed better than my expectations.
“I never thought they would qualify from the group stage talk less of getting to the semifinals.
“They gave their all as you can see in their matches. They played against a more technically inclined Germany. The better side won. In sports, you win some, you lose some.
“I’m so proud of them because irrespective of the drama surrounding their stay in Rio, they kept together. I believe we can get the bronze medal with God and luck on our side.
“I have never seen a team so focused as this team. I salute the courage of the players.
“They were not disgraced. They fought gallantly.”
Also, former international, Friday Ekpo, told NAN that the Nigerian team would have done better in the match against Germany.
Ekpo said the players did not approach the match with a winning mentality, saying that the Germans were beatable if the players were determined in their approach.
He said that the team’s inability to convert most of their chances also was partly responsible for the outcome of the match against Germany.
The ex-international, however, commended the team for their performance so far, advising the players to put in their best against Honduras in the third place match.
Kayode Tijani, a sports analyst, said the team played a good game though they missed some good chances that could have seen them through.
Tijani said the second half saw a cold game by the team as there was no desire to win.
He noted that the second goal by the Germans was scored in the last minutes because the players’ spirits dropped.
Tijani said that there is still hope for the team to win the bronze against Honduras.
Meanwhile, the Head Coach of Dream Team VI, Samson Siasia, has admitted that the U23 team did not deserve to play in the finals of the ongoing Rio de Janeiro Olympic soccer games.
Siasia based his assessment on the performance of the team.
He said: “I am disappointed. Even though we had glaring chances, we couldn’t score. We failed to untilise them. The German team did better. It is a shame.
“We did not have the right spirit for the game. May be most of them stayed up late and did not observe rest when they should. When you reach this level of the competition, you do not need anybody to teleguide you on how to conduct yourself to scale through. They had the chances.
“Am I going to get into the field of play to score for them?
“We are going to review the match and think of a strategy to win the third place match.
“That is what it has boiled down to. It is better than nothing.
“I am disappointed with the team. We did not play like people hungry to play in the finals at the famous Maracan Stadium.”
The captain of the team, John Mikel Obi, supported Siasia’s position.
Obi said: “We did not play well. We don’t deserve to be in the finals.
“In Saturday’s third place match against Hunduras, we are professional players, hopefully, we can win a medal.”
The players, who were obviously distraught after a woeful performance that left many Nigerians in Sao Paulo disappointed, apparently took it out on the Nigerian journalists, who met them at mix zone, by shunning interaction.
Unlike their German counterparts that allowed their journalists to ask questions, the Nigerians simply walked past.
“We are not in the mood for questions,” they said.
“This is rather disrespectful,” Mitchell Obi, the President of International Sports Press, quipped.
The standard ethical practice the world over is to at least show some respect or decently ask to be excused from interviews. That did not happen.
The Nigerian team lost 0-2 to Germany, the same 0-2 margin they lost to the Colombians within the same Corinthian Arena. [myad]
