Complete Football Special

Page 16
NIGERIA entered the
qualification series for the
Tokyo '64 Olympics in Japan but got
knocked out by Morocco. The Green Eagles
started brightly with a 3-0 win at home but
lost the return fixture 4-1 to the Atlas Lions
who went ahead to represent Africa at the
games.
In Japan, the North Africans lost their two
games 6-0 to eventual gold medal winners
Hungary and 3-1 to Yugoslavia
NIGERIA finally debuted
at the football event of the
Olympics after nicking one of the slots
reserved for Africa with fellow West
Africans Ghana and Guinea also going to
the party.
At the competition proper, the Green
Eagles opened their account with a 3-1 loss
to Japan, Sam Okoye's 33rd minute
equalizer briefly given the Nigerians hope of
a fightback but Kunishige Kumamoto's late
brace in the 72nd and 89th minutes
completed his hattrick and a
comprehensive win for the Asians.
Another 3-0 loss to Spain, Antonio
Grande's second half brace adding to
Fernando Ortuno's opener, effectively
knocked Nigeria out of the competition but
they still had Brazil to play and the Eagles
exited Mexico in style.
Nigeria reserved her best performance for
last with a thrilling 3-3 draw after racing to a
three-nil first half lead through Kenneth
Olayombo's brace and another by Peter
Aneke. The South Americans clawed back to
pull level, helped largely by Segun
Olumodeji's own goal either side of
Fernando Fereti and Tiao's goals.
Beaten but not bowed, Nigeria took more
positives than negatives away from their
debut performance.
NIGERIA missed out on
the trip to Germany with
Morocco, Ghana and Sudan claiming the
three tickets. Of the lot, only Morocco
advanced beyond the first round before
crashing to three straight
defeats in the second round.
THE Green Eagles
qualified for the football event
of
the 1976 Olympics in Canada but led fellow
qualifiers Ghana and Zambia in a
withdrawal from the games for political
reasons, citing New Zealand's tour of
Apartheid South Africa.
Thus was lost what could have probably
being Nigeria's first real attempt at winning
an Olympic medal.
THE Green Eagles, fresh
from winning a first AFCON
title on home soil, travelled to the former
USSR with high hopes of bringing back a
football medal to reflect their new status
as African champions but their results in
three games were underwhelming.
A 3-1 loss to Kuwait (Mahboub
Mubarak's own goal was Nigeria's only
strike) was followed by a 1-1 draw with
Czechoslovakia with Henry Nwosu drawing
the Eagles level after trailing for most of
the game before they finally crashed 1-0 to
Colombia.
Again, Nigeria went back home with a
solitary point and still in search of a first win
at the games.
NIGERIA was not
represented at the football
event of the Olympics. The African
contingent was remarkable because, for the
first time, all three won at least one match
before exiting the competition. Cameroun
and Morocco both placed third in their
groups while Egypt qualified for the next
round behind its group leaders Italy. The
Pharaohs bowed out 2-0 to France in the
quarter-finals.
THE GREEN Eagles were
back in the medals-hunt at
South Korea after missing the party in the
USA four years before but it was fellow
African qualifiers Zambia which grabbed all
the headlines with a comprehensive 4-0 win
over almighty Italy which had won the FIFA
World Cup six years before.
Special
Olympics
Nigeria lost her opening game 4-0 to
Brazil, followed by another 3-1 loss to
Yugoslavia (the late Rashidi Yekini got
Nigeria's consolation goal) before bowing
out with another 1-0 setback to Australia.
Despite high hopes, Nigeria returned from
Seoul without a point, for the first time
since 1968.
AGAIN Nigeria was
missing as a change in the
Olympic rules saw participation in the
football event restricted to players under
the age of 23 for the first time. Ghana,
Egypt and Morocco flew Africa's flag but it
was the Ghanaians who went all the way to
the semi-finals, equaling Egypt's record set
at the 1964 event in Tokyo.
However, while the Egyptians lost their
third-place classification match 3-1 to East
Germany, the Ghanaians went one better
and defeated Australia 1-0 to claim bronze,
Africa's first medal in the event.
AFRICA'S finest hour
finally arrived in the United
States of America when the Nigerian lads
mounted the rostrum at the Sanford
Stadium in Athens, Georgia on August 3,
1996 to collect the continent's first ever
gold medal in the football event in the 100
years history of the Olympics.
The U-23 team, now christened 'Dream
Team' by the local media, kicked off their
campaign with a not-too impressive 1-0 win
over Hungary before beating Japan 2-0. A 1-
0 loss to Brazil ensured the Nigerians
finished second to set up a quarter-final
date with Mexico which they won 2-0. The
semi-final was a rematch with Brazil but,
this time, the Dream Team won a dramatic
Special
From Mexico '68 – London 2012: Nigeria's score card at the Olympics
TOKYO 1964
MEXICO 1968
MUNICH 1972
MONTREAL 1976
Beijing 2008: The Silver-winning squad
pose with Argentina legend Diego Maradona.
IGERIA became the fifth African country – after Egypt,
NTunisia, Morocco and Ghana - to qualify for the football
event of the Olympics when they attended the Mexico
1968 edition. Between then and now, Nigeria has become the
most successful team at the Olympics with one gold and one
silver and are set to further extend the record with another
appearance at the Rio Olympics in Brazil.
KAYODE OGUNDARE traces the participation of Nigeria at the
football event of the Olympics from 1968 – when the country
debuted – to the last edition held in London.
MOSCOW 1980
LOS ANGELES 1984
SEOUL 1988
BARCELONA 1992
ATLANTA 1996
tie 4-3 with two late goals from Kanu
Nwankwo. In the final match, they defeated
Argentina 3-2 to win Africa's first Olympic
football gold medal.
SYDNEY 2000
AGAINST the grain of
expectations, Nigeria failed to
defend the gold medal it won four years
earlier but Cameroun kept the continent's
flag flying by beating Spain in a penalty
shoot-out to keep the title in Africa for
another four years.
The U-23 began the competition with a 3-
3 draw against Honduras, requiring an
added-time goal from Yakubu Aiyegbeni to
draw level after going behind. Bright
Igbinadolor and Victor Agali were the other
scorers on the day. Next up were the
Australians who fell 3-2 before being forced
to a 1-1 draw by Italy to book a quarter-final
date with Chile.
The Chileans, inspired by the legendary
Ivan Zamorano, raced into a four-nil lead
and Victor Agali's solitary goal 14minutes
from time was scant consolation.
ATHENS 2004
NIGERIA was once
again missing from the
foo
tball event after failing to beat Tunisia in the
final qualifying round. Without Nigeria and
Cameroun, winners of the previous two
editions, Africa was represented by Ghana,
Mali, Tunisia and Morocco.
Of the lot, only Mali advanced from the
group stages but they were eliminated in
the quarter-finals after losing 1-0 to Italy to
end Africa's hope of a third straight winners'
medal.
BEIJING 2008
AFTER the disappointment
of 2004, Nigeria's U-23
qualified ahead of time for Beijing with
respected coach Samson Siasia in charge
after taking the U-20 side to the finals of
the FIFA World Youth Championships three
years earlier.
They started with a 0-0 draw with the
Netherlands, defeated Japan and USA with
identical 2-1 wins and beat fellow Africans
Cote d'Ivoire 2-0 in the quarters. The
Nigerian lads tore Belgium to shreds for a 4-
1 victory to reach the final and set up a
rematch of the 1996 final against
Argentina.
However, unlike it happened 12 years
earlier, it was the Argentines who ran away
with a slim 1-0 win to leave Nigeria with a
consolatory silver medal.
Seoul 1988: Rashidi Yekini scored Nigeria’s
only goal at the Olympics in South Korea.