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Nigeria in Line for First Medal

Written by Adeleke Afolayan

Thursday, 21 August 2008

On the whole it has been yet another disappointing campaign at the Olympics for Team Nigeria but expect the exploits of Dream Team IV led by Samson Siasia may drown the anguish of Nigerians.

However, the colour of the medal will only be confirmed when the national U-23 squad confront defending gold medal winners Argentina in the final of the Olympic football tournament on Friday morning.

The crunch match, which renews a rivalry that dates back to the dramatic 1994 World Cup match in the United States, will kick off on the morning August 23rd at 5a.m Nigerian time...that is noon in China.

In previous encounters of note between Nigeria and the Argies, it was the South Americans that edged it 2-1 at the '94 World Cup with Siasia getting the Super Eagles' goal then.

Nigeria however returned the pain with an even dramatic 3-2 win in the final of the Atlanta '96 Olympic football tournament with that team captained by Nwankwo Kanu getting the nickname of Dream Team.

Both countries also met at the 2005 final of the World Youth Championships with Samson Siasia's U-20 squad falling to two Lionel Messi goals.

While Nigerians hope the medal won by the Dream Team IV is gold, the Chinese currently lead the medal table with 45 gold medals of theirs, well ahead of the United States that have 27 gold medals.

Great Britain has extended its lead in third place with 17 gold medals ahead of Russia in fourth place with 14 gold medals and Australia with 11 gold medals in fifth place. Germany, also with 11 gold, is sixth by virtue of five more silver medals for Australia.

So far, Africa's highest placed country is Kenya with two gold, four silver and two bronze medals while Ethiopia is just behind with two gold and one silver medal.

Zimbabwe have one gold and three silver medals all courtesy of Kirsty Coventry from the swimming pool while Cameroun and Tunisia are the only other Africans to win a gold medal so far, both with one each and the medal being the only one won by the countries.

Other African countries on the medal table are Algeria with one silver and one bronze medal, South Africa with one silver and Egypt with one bronze along with Togo and Morocco.

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