Siasia Has Never Had A Smooth Ride In Group Stage Matches.

Photo: the eagle on line.com.ng

First, let me start by saying  that only three teams will qualify for the Olympics, meaning that first, second and third will qualify, and for you to qualify you must have played in the Semi- final of the tournament, that is the first stage.

Interestingly, Nigeria is currently struggling to qualify from the group stage, and this is Samson Siasia's usual style of play in group stages. In Holland 2005 when Siasia was in charge, the U20 qualified with four points, finishing second behind Brazil who topped the group with seven points. The team then drew Brazil 0-0, lost to South Korea 1-2, and eventually beat Switzerland 3-0  to qualify.

In Beijing 2008, the then dream team waited for the last day of match to win and eventually qualified with seven points finishing top, Siasia said then that he must qualify and finish first because he wanted to avoid playing Argentina in the knockout stage. In 2009, the then U-20 lost two matches to Venezuela and Spain and managed to qualify with three points as best losers, and that was Siasia's worst performance in a group stage.

I am not in anyway trying to justify that this process is good irrespective of what comes out of the match against Algeria tomorrow, but I just need to point out that something is technically wrong with the defence of this team. How can we take a lead in first half in two straight matches and in the second half something unusual happens? Why should this be? And for how long will this continue?

Anyway, Siasia should gather his technical crew and look critically at this case,even if it will require adapting a style of continuous scoring more goals as a form of defence rather than conceding and not being able to score in the second half. Trust Nigerians, all they know is Qualify! Qualify!! Qualify!!! If you don't qualify, the next thing is s**k.