Siasia banks on Iheanacho, Awoniyi

In a bid to ensure automatic qualification for the 2016 Olympics, Chief Coach of the national U-23 team, the Dream Team IV, Samson Siasia has began moves to have Manchester City of England young prodigy, Kelechi Iheanacho and new Liverpool signing, Taiwo Awoniyi join his team.

Siasia told Sports Vanguard yesterday in Abuja that the forthcoming Africa Youth Championship (AYC) to be hosted by Senegal in November is very crucial because it will also serve as a qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games.

According to the coach, what affected his team adversely at the just ended African Games where the team managed a bronze medal was the inability of the strikers to score goals.

“Talking about our outing in Congo, I will say that the team didn’t play badly but the only problem we had was the inability of the strikers to convert our chances, I hope to bring in Iheanacho and Awoniyi but the only problem is if their clubs will release them.

We hope they will but in the interim we will continue to work with the boys in camp, we will continue to work on their goal scoring ability.

“For now we are going on a one week break and when we return we will begin to prepare for a possible international friendly with Brazil in London in the next few weeks. This is to further expose these boys and we hope they will continue to improve.

On expectations in Senegal, the former international said the aim of the team is not just to qualify for the Olympics but also to win the AYC to make up for the poor outing at the African Games.

Siasia equally revealed that he was still open to welcoming new players to the team, provided such players are smart and gifted to the extent that they can catch up with the rest of the players that have been in camp for nine months.

Nigeria will play Mali, Algeria and host nation,Senegal

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Vanguard News