Nigeria’s U-23 team will play the U.S.A. on Wednesday in a match it must win to qualify for the last eight of the football event of the ongoing Beijing Olympics. Nigeria and U.S.A. jointly top the group B with four points each, but the U.S.A. has the advantage of having scored more goals since both teams have same plus one goal advantage.
The winner of the tie automatically tops the group with the winner of the second group match between Netherlands with two points and Japan without a point determining the second group ticket. Should Nigeria’s match with the U.S.A. end in a draw, its qualification for the last eight would depend on either the second group game ends in a draw or Japan defeats the Netherlands.
But Coach Samson Siasia, after defeating Japan 2-1 last Sunday, promised to correct the mistakes noticed in the team. He assured that the team would qualify for the quarter-finals.
According to him, the problem of the team is finishing, even as he said that the team was yet to fully integrate together.
"Osaze has not played with the team at all until the Olympics. We are trying to get the right formation. The good thing is that the team improves with every match and I promise that it will get there," Siasia said.
Obinna Nsofor, scorer of the team’s opening goal against Japan said, "We will go for a win in order to avoid getting ourselves involved in any calculation."
Meanwhile, the world football governing body, FIFA, has confirmed the suspension of Onyekachi Apam and Olufemi Olubayo from today’s match, having bagged two yellow cards each. The duo of
Chibuzor Okonkwo and Chinedu Obasi Ogbuke will miss the quarter-final match if Nigeria qualifies should they receive yellow cards today
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