•Dream Team player in action Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Only few people gave them chance to make it to the medal’s stage at the Beijing Olympics. But the Dream Team IV held on to their dream and fought their way to the final.
The benchmark set by the Nwankwo Kanu-led gold winning Dream Team I at the Atlanta ’96 Olympics obviously put the Samson Siasia-tutored team under undue pressure.

Those who wrote the team off argued that they lacked the quality of such gifted players in the mould of Austin Jay Jay Okocha, Emmanuel Amuneke, Dan ‘The Bull’ Amokachi and Nwankwo Kanu among others, who made the all-conquering Dream Team I the best squad ever in the history of the nation’s Under-23 team.

The doubting Thomases failed to reckon that the nucleus of the current Dream Team are the Flying Eagles’ squad that won silver at the 2005 World Youth Championship in Holland under the tutelage of Coach Siasia, the same man in charge of the Nigerian team to the Beijing Olympics.
A goalless draw against the Dutch Under-23 national team in the opening group match was hardly convincing, neither was the 2–1 victory over the Japanese side in the second group game enough to make the pessimists believe that Siasia and his boys had anything to offer. Even Coach Siasia himself gave the players knocks for their 2–1 defeat of a 10-man United States team despite their qualification for the quarterfinal.

But if anybody was still in doubt about the abilities of the Dream Team IV, such doubts were erased after the semi-final encounter against their Belgian counterparts, which ended in an emphatic 4–1 victory in favour of the Nigerian team.

Although the final match against the dreaded Argentine Under-23 team inspired by Barcelona of Spain striker, Lionel Messi, was still in progress as at the time of going to press early this morning, Nigerians, including those who wrote-off the Dream Team IV, are unanimous in commending the Siasia’s team for a job well done.

Whether they return with gold or silver, the team have done well by giving Nigeria her only medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s hope in 2010 World Cup finals billed for South Africa, rests squarely on Coach Siasia and his amazing Dream Team IV.
Former Green Eagles’ dazzling winger, Chief Segun Odegbami (MON), passed this verdict following the superlative showing of the nation’s Under-23 team at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, which ends tomorrow.

Many never gave the team any chance at the global showpiece, arguing that they neither had the character of the victorious Atlanta ’96 Dream Team. But Odegbami, popularly known as ‘Mathematical’, owing to his dexterity in his playing days, noted that the Siasia-tutored squad had not only confounded their critics, but have also proved that they are the future of Nigerian football and should be allowed to complete their metamorphosis to the Super Eagles.

“We are all taking a peep into the future. I think we now have a team that can go to the 2010 World Cup and win the trophy for Nigeria and Africa,” Odegbami predicted.
The former Shooting Stars of Ibadan quintessential attacker, who hailed Coach Siasia after the Dream Team IV held their Dutch counterparts to a goalless draw in their opening group match at the Beijing Olympics men’s football event, observed that the Nigerian team had improved with every match at the tournament.

“The Dream Team IV improved tremendously after their first match. Interestingly, the team were not built on individual players. There are no such talented players like the Jay Jay Okochas or Nwankwo Kanus as we had in the Atlanta ’96 Olympic squad.

“The strength of the team lies in their team spirit. This is because they had evolved as a unit over the past four years. The core of the team has remained the same since after the World Youth Championship in Holland in 2005.

“You don’t have to build a team on individuals. The Dream Team IV have been able to play like a team because of continuity,” he reasoned.
Odegbami, however, believes that for the current Olympic team to complete their transformation and achieve the ultimate goal of winning the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the squad must continue to play under the telulage of Siasia, the coach, who has been nurturing them from the Under-20 category. He, however, fears that administrative ineptitude and shortsightedness might truncate the successful transition and, therefore, abort the 2010 dream.

“My fear is that our football administrators might scuttle the achievement of the ultimate goal for the team,” he said. “The Dream Team IV have the potentials of winning the World Cup in 2010, but to achieve that goal, they must remain under the coach who understands them very well; I mean the man who has groomed the team over the years, and that man is Samson Siasia.
“It is something that has to be handled with maturity,” Odegbami advised.

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