Big dreams for Dream Team VI

Nigeria’s fortunes at the global sports arena were boosted when the nation’s Under 23 Football Team – the ‘Dream Team Six’ lifted the African Cup of Nations for that age category last month. In the finals of the tournament which was hosted by Senegal, Nigeria defeated Algeria by two goals to one to lift the […]

Nigeria’s fortunes at the global sports arena were boosted when the nation’s Under 23 Football Team – the ‘Dream Team Six’ lifted the African Cup of Nations for that age category last month. In the finals of the tournament which was hosted by Senegal, Nigeria defeated Algeria by two goals to one to lift the trophy. This feat also established the country as the team to beat in African football at that level. Nigeria had earlier beaten the host country Senegal at the semi-finals in order to meet Algeria in the final match. By that victory Nigeria qualifies as one of three countries to represent Africa at the forthcoming XXX1 Olympiad holding in Brazil in August 2016. The other two qualifiers are Algeria and Senegal.
While the team’s victory at the tournament is important, its ultimate significance remains in the fresh opportunity it offers the country to feature in the soccer competition at the Olympic Games in Brazil. It is without doubt that among contemporary sports in Nigeria, football occupies a position of prominence. This situation makes the country’s participation at international tournaments in the sport enjoy rave appeal and puts pressure on the administrators as well as players in the game. Indeed sports especially soccer, has come to be the most profound unifying factor in the country today. Hence failure of the national soccer team to appear at any international tournament, especially the Olympic Games as well as its poor performance always amounts to a big disappointment for soccer loving Nigerians. 
It is not difficult to appreciate that with the qualification of the Dream Team XXI many Nigerians are nursing expectations of a repeat of the country’s sterling performance at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, when an earlier Nigerian Under-Twenty Three team serially defeated global soccer giants Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in the quarter, semi and final matches to lift the goal medal of the tournament. The spin offs from that development for the country’s international standing and the internal cohesion at home, remain unquantifiable. 
Since 1952 Nigeria has participated in every Olympic Games except the 1976 Montreal Games when this country joined other Africans nations to boycott the event as part of the global advocacy to end apartheid rule in South Africa. In its Olympic outings, the country has earned a total of 23 medals in various categories, with three of such being gold medals. Two of these came from athletics (Chioma Ajunwa in long jump at Atlanta 1996 and the Men’s 4×400 metres relay race at Sydney 2000 respectively), as well as that from soccer in Atlanta 1996. The Nigerian Under-Twenty Three football team also clinched the silver medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Against the backdrop of the foregoing, the journey of the Dream Team VI to Brazil is of significant interest to Nigerians as they attach great expectations to it. While the team and their hardworking coach –Nigeria’s ex-international Samson Siasia–deserve commendation and are presently celebrated by the country, they cannot afford to lose sight of the Herculean task ahead in the forthcoming global tournament. As one of the three African representatives at the games, the team will do well to expect stiff opposition from all and sundry, especially if by any chance it is matched with Argentina and Brazil who will definitely seek revenge over their humiliation by Nigeria twenty years ago.
In this enterprise it is important that the imperative of Nigeria progressing at the tournament be appreciated by the handlers and members, as having won both gold and silver in previous games, Nigerians cannot expect less from them in Brazil.