REPEAT OF FRANCE ’98? I HOPE NOT

Nigeria’s Dream Team VI finally succumbed to Colombia earlier this morning in a 2-0 defeat in the on-going Rio Olympics games.

Our players did not particularly play so badly. They had superior ball possession, still their pace seemed a bit slow. It was like Mikel’s syndrome came to play in the game. Every time we had possession of the ball, we took it backwards. It was as if we were either defending or not willing to score a goal. May be that was the instruction from the technical bench.

The defeat to Colombia means both Nigeria and Colombia progress from the group stage to the quarter final while Japan and Sweden are out of the competition.

But it is ok, after all we already qualified for the quarter final – a remarkable feat considering the circumstances surrounding our preparation for this tournament. The quarter final however is precisely what intrigues me here. It looks like France ’98 World Cup is about to play out yet again.

In France ’98 World Cup our Super Eagles squared up with Denmark in the second round of the tournament, while Brazil came up against Colombia. Before the match pundits in Nigeria prematurely enthused about Super Eagles victory over Denmark to progress to quarter finals where they would come up against Brazil.

Our players and the technical bench probably thought so too, for instead of thinking of the match at hand, they went about thinking about how to play Brazil in the quarter finals. They took Denmark for granted and paid dearly for it. Brazil also beat Colombia. So Denmark and Brazil progressed to the quarter finals to the utter consternation of Nigerians.

Is the same scenario going to play out in this Olympics? I hope not. Listening to a radio sports program this morning, I heard callers already predicting our Dream Team VI victory over Denmark in their quarter final match coming up on Saturday 13th August.

To all intents and purposes, the quarter final match against Denmark would be nothing if not a grudge match. We must not allow history to repeat itself. We must not take Denmark for granted once again. Danish teams are always technically and tactically very organised. We should expect no less in the coming match. Coach Samson Siasia and the boys must do everything to beat Denmark on Saturday.

That said, it seems Siasia's poor runs against South American teams is not about to be wiped out any time soon. Siasia, as a coach of a Nigerian national team, has never beaten any Latin American team in a competitive match, save for a 4-1 victory over Argentina in a Super Eagles friendly against Argentina in Abuja in 2011. His loss against Colombia earlier this morning exacerbates his poor record against South American teams. Perhaps there is some he still has to learn about samba soccer.