The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dream Team

  • Anyansi-Agwu revels in Dream Team, Falcons’ feats

    Anyansi-Agwu revels in Dream Team, Falcons’ feats

    Chairman of the NFF Technical and Development Committee, Felix Anyansi-Agwu has expressed joy in the achievements of the U-23 National Team and the Senior Women’s Team, as both sides qualified for the football event of this year’s All-Africa Games (AAG).

    Siasia’s U-23 boys edged Zambia 2-1 in Lusaka on Sunday to qualify for the Men’s Football Tournament of the Games on a 2-1 aggregate, two days after the Super Falcons had whipped their counterparts from Mali 8-0 in Abuja to reach the women’s event on 9-1 aggregate.

    The ranking member of the NFF Executive Committee was delighted as both teams returned to the football events of the continental Games, from which they were missing four years ago.

    “You will remember very well that four years ago, none of the two teams made it to the All-Africa Games held in Mozambique. Their qualification this time, coming within two days of each other, speaks volumes. This is also a sign of the good and great things coming very soon to Nigeria football.

    “I want to put these feats down to the exceptional leadership style of the NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, who has continuously harped on the need to build sustainable football culture as well as earn good results on the international front, and has been leading us all to work assiduously in that direction.”

    Anyansi-Agwu, who has steered the ship of Aba giants, Enyimba FC for the past 15 years, during which the team has won scores of trophies including two CAF Champions League titles, called on Nigerians to be patient with the NFF Board and Management and witness more glorious feats by the various National Teams.

    “This year alone, our U-20 boys have won the African title and qualified for the FIFA U-20 World Cup; the U-17 boys have won a ticket to go to the FIFA World Cup and defend their title and; the U-23 and Senior Women Team have qualified for the All-Africa Games. I want to call on our ball fans to be patient with this new administration and there will be more glorious accomplishments.

    “We are doing well on and off the field. I want to assure that even the Super Eagles will soon begin to do very well, going by the plans we are putting in place. Also, our people will soon begin to see the benefits and value of the various educational programmes that the NFF President, with the approval of the Board, is driving with so much passion and purpose.”

  • Dream Team to face Egypt, Senegal

    Dream Team to face Egypt, Senegal

    • As Cameroon, CIV fall

    The U-23 National Team, known as Dream Team, will be jostling with Egypt, Senegal, Ghana, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and host Congo-Brazzaville for the gold medal of this year’s All-Africa Games (AAG) men’s football event.

    The Pharaohs conquered Burundi with 2-0 wins in each leg, while Senegal reached the games on the away goal rule at the expense of Mali, following a 2-2 draw in Bamako and 1-1 draw in Dakar.

    Ghana edged Mozambique 2-1 on aggregate after a 2-0 win in Accra on Sunday, and Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso also edged South Africa, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire by the same aggregate scoreline.

    Cameroon drew 1-1 with Zimbabwe in Yaounde on Sunday after losing the first leg 1-0 in Harare; South Africa failed to qualify after they could only beat Sudan 1-0 following 2-0 defeat in Khartoum and; Burkina Faso forced Cote d’Ivoire to a 0-0 draw in Abidjan after winning the first leg 2-1.

  • Dream Team eye big win against Zambia

    Dream Team eye big win against Zambia

    The Nigeria U-23  players and officials are calm about the prospect of playing the Zambia U-23 team on Saturday and they are scheduled to play a final warm up game today in Abuja against yet-to-be-named opponents.

    The Dream Team VI defeated Gabon’s U-23 team 6-1 on aggregate in the last round and they are to face Zambia in the country this weekend before the deciding leg in Lusaka in a fortnight.

    The Media Officer of the team,Timi Ebikagboro told SportingLife that 22 players are presently sweating it out in Abuja and that they are expecting one or two foreign-based players to arrive before the Saturday tie to beef up the home-based players.

    He confirmed that the emphasis of the team’s head coach, Samson Siasia is to raise a formidable team that will be able to beat the Zambians well here in Nigeria before contemplating the return leg in the Southern African nation.

  • Ahead of Zambia: Dream Team captain sure of improvement

    Ahead of Zambia: Dream Team captain sure of improvement

    Dream Team VI captain,  Erhun Obanor has assured  that they will make improvements ahead of the final round of qualifiers for the 2015 All Africa Games against Zambia.

    The Nigerian U-23’s struggled to a 2-0 win over their Gabonese counterparts in Abuja on Saturday – a result which meant they won 6-1 on aggregate – but were hardly convincing and Obanor said they will improve before facing Zambia.

    “We made a lot of mistakes but the most important thing was the victory,” he said of the Gabon match.

    “We just need to improve before we face Zambia and I know we will because we have played better in our previous games but I really don’t know what happened against Gabon here.

    “We beat them 4-1 in their home and that was because we played well but sometimes you don’t play well,” he told sl10.ng.

    But when asked if he knew anything about the Zambians, the Insurance of Benin defender had some interesting words.

    “I really don’t care about them. Whether they are good or not is their business, as I am only focused on my team.

    “It is the same football because the Gabonese were also good and we beat them so there’s no problem if they’re good,” he said.

  • Zambia confirms for Dream Team

    Zambia’s U-23 side will be the Dream Team’s next opponents in the race to the 11th All-Africa Games after they must have seen off Gabon, following the withdrawal of Madagascar.

    Siasia’s wards lashed the Gabonese 4-1 in Libreville on Saturday with the return leg set for Abuja on March 7. The winner of the two-leg fixture is billed to play the winner between Zambia and Madagascar, but the Indian Ocean Islanders withdrew from the race, handing an automatic final round ticket to the Zambians.

    The first leg of the final round fixture will take place in Nigeria only two weeks  after the return leg with the Gabonese.

    Also at the weekend, Burundi shocked DR Congo 1-0 in Kinshasa, Sudan edged hosts Ethiopia 2-1 in Dire Dawa and Uganda and Mozambique drew 0-0 in Maputo.

    Zimbabwe, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso have also reached the final round of qualifiers following the withdrawals of Swaziland, Tunisia, Guinea Bissau and Libya.

  • Siasia needs balance in Dream Team

    Siasia needs balance in Dream Team

    Head coach of Nigeria’s Under-23 team, Samson Siasia has said he is not building his side around any individual as he prepares for this weekend’s All Africa Games qualifying match against Gabon in Libreville.

    Siasia has also warned the five overseas-based players called up for the game not to rest on their laurels as any dip in standard will see the affected individual instantly dropped.

    “There is no automatic shirt in this team. Anybody who does not work hard or meet our standards will be dropped immediately,” Siasia told supersport.com shortly after he named a squad of 21 players for the fixture with Gabon.

    The squad are comprised of 16 domestically based players and Siasia said the Nigerian league remains an important pool for the selection of prime talent.

    “You can see that there are a lot more players from the local scene. That’s because we want to give our league priority because we believe there are a lot of very good players from the league,” he said.

    Siasia’s list of 21 players raised more than a few eyebrows, especially as two players originally expected to make the list, Aminu Umar and Alhaji Gero were surprisingly dropped.

    Siasia revealed that Umar, in the books of Turkish club, Samsunspor, arrived late to camp which ultimately sounded the death knell for him.

    “I have never seen Aminu Umar play and there was no way I was going to take such a player to Gabon. He arrived the camp late so I couldn’t really watch him play,” Siasia said.

    Siasia is no stranger to coaching or success at this level.

    In 2008, he led the Nigeria under-23s to the final of the football event of the Olympics where the Dream Team lost to a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina 1-0.

  • Dream Team VI holds Flying Eagles in 3-3 thriller

    Dream Team VI holds Flying Eagles in 3-3 thriller

    • Awoniyi wins MVP, N200,000

    • Siasia, Garba praise teams

    The Samson Siasia-led Dream Team VI fought hard to hold fans’ favourites and Super Six Champion Flying Eagles 3-3 in all explosive and thrilling last match decided at the main bowl of the Abuja National Stadium yesterday.

    Siasia who paraded most of the players that took part in the Tunisia friendly came out smoking in the first half but the Manu Garba led Flying Eagles woke up in the second half and proved why they are Abuja fans’ favourites.

    Little wonder Taiwo Awoniyi of Flying Eagles who was invited to the CHAN Eagles by Stephen Keshi before being dropped, won the Most Valuable Player Award and also smiled home with a cash award of N200,000.

    Prince Aggrey of the Flying Eagles drew the first blood in the 28trh minute, while Dream Team VI replied with a goal through Peter Onyekachi in the 32nd minute.

    Dream team went ahead scoring their second goal via a spot kick in the 45th minute through Oghenekaro Etebo and scored the third goal while Flying Eagles’ Benard Bulwa and Chidera Eze scored in the 54th and 74th minute to end it 3-3 goals apiece.

    Assistant Coach of the Flying Eagles Nduka Ugbade said that playing against a new team brought in by Samson Siasia jolted the Flying Eagles.

    “We could have won the match against the Dream Team VI today but anxiety on the part of my players got the best out of them. They were anxious playing a new team paraded by Samson Siasia, but we are happy we emerged the winner of this competition”, Ugbade confessed.

    Siasia praised his boys for emerging runner up despite moulding a new team less than a month. My boys have done well if you looked at where we are coming from. This team was  put together under two months now. So I am happy with what I have seen of them so far”, Siasia disclosed.

    The Flying Eagles emerged winner of the Super Six having won 13 points winning three and drew one while the Dream Team came second winning two and drew three.

  • Don’t blame players for Tunisia defeat – Siasia

    Don’t blame players for Tunisia defeat – Siasia

    The Olympic Team coach, Samson Siasia, has absolved his player of blame following the team 3-5 defeat in the hands of their Tunisian counterpart in a friendly encounter played in Tunis.

    A brace from Junior Ajayi and strike from Etim Emmanuel could not prevent the Dream Team from going down to the Tunisians in the eight-goal thriller played at the El Menzah Stadium, Goal reports.

    Siasia said several factors caused the team’s defeat in the encounter, adding that the players hope to make amend when both sides meet again on Wednesday.

    “I don’t want to blame the players too much for the loss to the Tunisians in the first match on Saturday,” Goal quoted the coach as saying in a statement released by the Nigeria Football Federation.

    “Without appearing to be making excuses for them, we arrived in Tunis on Friday afternoon and immediately went to training but the weather did not help matters.

    “Most of them were traveling outside the country for the first time and you can’t wish that away.”

    The former Super Eagles striker also said the weather was a critical issue while thanking the NFF for the game which will help him and his assistants correct noticeable lapses.

     

  • Dream Team pip Warri Wolves 2-1

    Dream Team pip Warri Wolves 2-1

    Nigeria U-23 team, Dream Team VI, pipped Warri Wolves 2-1 Saturday in a Super 6 match played in Abuja.

    Dream Team‘s goals were scored by Austin Amutu and Baker Ebimabowei, while Gift Atulewa scored Wolves consolation goal.

    Striker  Amutu gave Dream Team the lead in the third minute against his club Warri Wolves.

    After an earlier effort in the 14th minute, Joseph Osadiaye continued to press for equalizer for Wolves as he had his shot in the 21st minute deflected for a corner.

    In the 26th minute, Osadiaye was denied by the goalkeeper.

    Chris Madaki’s ambitious long-range shot in the 36th minute in his bid to double Dream Team’s effort went off target by whiskers.

    Wolves were awarded a penalty after U-23 team goalkeeper Jonah Usman fouled Ebong and Gift Atulewa converted the spot kick in the 49th minute for the equalizer.

    In the 51st minute, Wolves’ Monday Osagie was lucky not to have been sent off for a second booking after his reckless tackle on Amutu which was picked for penalty as the resultant spot kick was converted by Baker Ebimabowei to restore the U23s’ lead.

    Bartholomew Ibenegbu’s well taken free kick in the 77th minute almost gave Wolves the equalizer but came off the post.

    Usman in goal for Dream Team pulled off another save in the 82nd minute.

     

  • Siasia invites Iwobi, Adeyemo to Olympic team

    Siasia invites Iwobi, Adeyemo to Olympic team

    Olympic Team coach, Samson Siasia, has extended invitation to Arsenal youngster, Alex Iwobi and Dundee United ace, Ola Adeyemo, to join the team ahead of an All Africa Games qualifier next month.

    Iwobi has enjoyed an eventful season, playing regularly for the Arsenal U-21 team, captained the UEFA Youth League team and making it to the substitute bench for the main team, africanFootball.com reports.

    Iwobi, born in England to Nigerian parent has represented England at U-16, U-17 and U-18 levels.

    Dundee’s Adeyemo, who also got an invitation to join the U-23 team, told africanFootball.com that he is delighted with his call-up.

    “I have been invited to be part of the Nigeria U-23 team. I am so excited at this opportunity. Though I was born in London, it has been my dream to play for my country Nigeria. I am glad I have the chance. I am making arrangement to hit the camp in Abuja soon,” the 19-year-old striker told africanFootball.com.