Siasia Picks 3 Home Based Players For Olympics Qualifies

22.03.2008

SS Lazio's Swiss midfielder, Valon Behrami
celebrates after scoring during a Lazio vs AS
Roma Italian Serie A football match at
Olympic Stadium in Rome, on Wednesday.
SS Lazio won the match 3-2. AFP PHOTOAfter beating the home based Super Eagles 2-0 on Wednesday, chief coach of the nation’s U-23 team, Samson Siasia, has revealed that only three of the players seen in action in the friendly may make the final list that will take on South Africa in a crucial Olympic Games qualifier next Wednesday.

According to him, assembling the team was just a back up against uncertainty in case the invited foreign based players fail to make the trip to Nigeria for the encounter.

“Maybe three of those who played the match could be there for the game against South Africa next week. We decided to give them a good chance of making their own mark against the home-based Eagles.

“I am not disappointed with their performance. We wanted to see if we had a good back-up for those coming from Europe, and we saw what we would get in case of any unexpected events,” he explained.

While assuring that the team would come clean against the South Africans, the former Under-20 national team handler admitted that it would not be an easy task.

Meanwhile, after Wednesday’s 2-0 triumph over the James Peters-led home based Super Eagles, Dream Team 4 assistant coach, Henry Nwosu, described the match as a quality tune-up for the Under-23 players, ahead of next week’s Olympic qualifier against visiting South Africa at Abuja National Stadium.

The former Green Eagles skipper disclosed that he cherished the action and not the win, because it exposed the strength and weaknesses of some members of the team ahead of the match

“I must confess, they gave us a tough battle, and we were on our toes all through the match. It was a great challenge for us, but I am happy we won. “Even if we had not won, there wouldn’t have been anything to worry about. It was not basically about the result, but the fact that we got a chance of watching the lads under a tight situation.