Posted by By GBOLAHAN DADA on
Nigeria's Under-23 coach, Samson Siasia, has developed goose pimples over his team's preparations for the Beijing Olympic games qualifier against the dreaded Ghana's Under-23 team. The coach is struggling to assemble a formidable team, after falling to the Ghanaian side once in the All Africa Games qualifiers.
...Poor preparations could deny Nigeria Olympic ticket, as Coach Samson Siasia struggles to assemble a formidable team to play dreaded Ghana's Under-23 team
Nigeria's Under-23 coach, Samson Siasia, has developed goose pimples over his team's preparations for the Beijing Olympic games qualifier against the dreaded Ghana's Under-23 team. The coach is struggling to assemble a formidable team, after falling to the Ghanaian side once in the All Africa Games qualifiers.
Even as there are 25 players already in the Abuja camp, Siasia has yet to see a good team in the squad.
The former Super Eagles striker told Daily Sunsport in Abuja on Monday that he was yet to raise a team, and would be happy to see some of the foreign-based players he had already invited for the match.
Although, there are signals that the players would not be available until after the end of the season in Europe, but Siasia wants to build his team ahead of time before June.
'Information had it that Ghana are already in Togo, preparing for Nigeria. Their problems are not how to raise a team; they have their team intact, all they need is to intensify training and perfect their match plans. So, we have to be aggressive in our approach. We have to adopt a new approach to our preparations. The players we intend to use must have been in camp by now, and if they fail to report to camp on time that means we are in big trouble," he said.
The Jones Attuquayefio-led technical team of the the Black Meteors began a two-week intensive preparations in Togo to prepare the team against Nigeria in the Olympic qualifier, as well as the All Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria.
'The camp is open to players. Everyday the camp is swelled by players from across the federation, but none of them has been able to make a difference," Siasia said at the Old Parade Ground when Enyimba and Akwa United played a barren draw in the replay league duel in Abuja.
Siasia confessed that he was not ready for the all-important duel barely three weeks to the match, because the main players to play the match have yet to report to camp.
'You can see that we are not ready. Virtually all the invited local players are still not in camp. They are still busy playing for their various clubs in the league and FA Cup, and there is nothing I can do about it. We can not even train with the foreign-based players because they will come to Nigeria only when their season are over; that is if the season ends soon, and there is a stipulated period for them to join their national team.
"Most of them will travel down to the country between May 24 and 26. So, at the moment we are just sitting down and doing virtually nothing."
Recently, Ghana had to pull out of a friendly duel against Mexico due to the Olympic qualifier against Nigeria. Ghana Coach, Claude Le Roy, said the Black Meteors' impending Olympic Games qualifier against Nigeria on June 3 influenced his decision not to honour the friendly encounter.
'The Meteors game is one of importance that needs extra attention."
The coach's decision is also to afford the Meteors coach, Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio, the luxury of selecting players like Asamoah Gyan, Michael Helegbe and Haminu Dramani, among others who double as members of the two national teams. Ghana set up an appointment with Mexico after Switzerland pulled out of a meeting with the West African 2006 World Cup debutants.