INTERVIEW: Samson Siasia dreams Rio 2016 Olympics ticket, All Africa Games gold

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After leading the Nigeria U23 national team to a goalless draw in Pointe Noire against Congo and securing qualification to the Caf U23 Championship, coach Samson Siasia opened up on his team’s next assignment to Goal.com. Excerpts:
samson siasia
Goal: How would you rate your team’s performance against Congo’s U23 national team in Pointe Noire?

Samson Siasia: It was a very, very difficult match, a very difficult one. If you don’t plan there would be problems and you can never succeed. Things just don’t happen like that. We know that Congo came with some new professionals and all that but we didn’t worry about it. All we wanted to do was to know exactly how we had to play and how we would stop them from scoring against us. It was a very difficult one because they could have scored any time even in the last minute and that means we would be out. That was what I actually told the players that they had to be very, very careful. We had to be in a better position to score first. We tried as much as we could in the first half. We had a chance within the first 10 minutes, I don’t really know how [Oghenekaro] Etebo missed five or six yards from the goal. All the same sometimes it happens just like that. But the bottom line is that we had to qualify.

What is the technical crew doing as regards the attack line that has not been converting the numerous chances created in all their matches most especially ahead of Senegal for the Africa U23 Championship?

This problem of goal scoring has been there for a while and it just didn’t happen overnight. But the thing is that these boys scored four goals in the first match against Gabon. I don’t know why we are having this goal scoring problem. We will keep working on it. We cannot relent. For us to win we have to score goals. We have to work more on our finishing.

Are you satisfied with these set of players to prosecute the Championship in Senegal? Or are you still thinking of bringing in more players to fight for shirts in the team?

The team is a work in progress so we can bring in players if they are better than what we have now. We are not doing friendship in this job. We want the best legs to come and play for Nigeria and at the end of the day to graduate to be Super Eagles players. It is not a friendship team. If we find better players that are good enough of course we want to include them to make our team stronger.

Do you think the All Africa Games tournament would be a better preparation ground for the African U23 Championship?

There won’t be better preparations than that because it would be very tough out there. I think it is a good one for us preparing for the Olympics qualifying tournament. I think it is going to help our team more because if you play more games it would improve the team. The more games you play among yourselves I think that will help the team to become a better team.

Is winning the All Africa Games a target for you?

It is a challenge and a target for us because why are we going if we don’t want to win it? We want to go there and do our best to make sure we win the championship. That will help the team and solidify it for the other challenges ahead. We have qualified and we must try and see how we can win it.

How do you rate your chances in Group B of the Africa Games including Ghana, Egypt and Senegal that has been described as a group of death?

(Laughing) Yes they called it group of death, but nobody will die. We will try the best we can to make sure that we conquer. It is better we play against strong teams than against weaker teams that you will [easily] beat but the stronger team will now [eliminate you]. It’s okay, we are not going to run away from them. We will do the best we can to beat them when we meet.

People have been calling you ‘away games’ specialist’ since you also booked the 2008 Olympic Football Tournament ticket playing 0-0 draw away to Ghana in Accra. What has been the magic wand for achieving these results?

There is no secret. You just want to make sure you qualify. If you don’t defend properly or score goals there is no way you are going to qualify. Maybe it is hard work and by the grace of God sometimes. But these guys had one open chance five minutes to go in the match against Congo on Sunday but missed it. Sometimes luck comes to play in matches of this magnitude. But a good preparation is the most important key to all these successes. It is okay. I think the boys have done very, very well. They played to instructions. I wanted them to play the way we have been talking and how we have practiced and all that. I am actually very pleased.

Are you thinking of inviting fresh foreign-based players to boost the team ahead of the All Africa Games?

Any player that wants to come and try let him come.

Then what of players like Kelechi Iheanacho?

Kelechi has been in our programme but he has been [busy] with his team up and down. So I don’t think [Manchester City] will let him come. That is another problem. If they let him come we will see him. Everybody has to come and fight for shirts in this team. There is no automatic shirt for anybody.

So when is the camp opening?
Next week Tuesday by the special grace of God.

In Abuja or Port Harcourt?
Anywhere the Nigeria Football Federation chooses.

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