Nigeria Ends Belgium’s Goal Medal Hopes

Belgium’s road to the Olympic Men’s Football Final ended yesterday against Nigeria. After solidly advancing from the group stages and upsetting Italy, the Nigerians proved too much for the Young Devils. The match started out strong for Nigeria. Offensively, they were sound all match leading to a final score of Nigeria 4-1 Belgium. This match came down to two things: fatigue and tactics. In the first half I could tell that the Belgians were missing the charisma from their earlier matches. The Italians really wore them down. Our players didn’t have much in the tank to play against Nigeria. Moussa Dembélé, who was a key presence in our earlier matches, didn’t do much yesterday. I think fatigue was involved. Also, our 4-5-1 formation did not fare well against Nigeria’s 4-3-3. Nigeria was able to mix up their offense with that formation. It seemed like they never attacked the same way. Nigerian passing was crisp and accurate. They usually managed to find Peter Odemwingie. The Belgian defense wasn’t weak, just fragile since we lacked possession for most of the match. Plus we couldn’t close down the midfield. For most of the match, the ball was in our third of the pitch. You never want to see that. Both teams’ goalkeepers came up with big saves. Vanzekin was Nigeria’s best defense and Bailly prevented a massacre. It was a hugely disappointing result for us considering what we accomplished earlier this tournament. “We are very disappointed with the result. We had bigger expectations for this game. We knew that we were going to be playing a very strong team who possess great strength and great speed, but they caused us too many problems in the opening 30 minutes. After that we had chances and I thought that we were the better team, but then they scored the second which made life very difficult for us and after that they controlled the rest of the game. I think they have a great chance to win the tournament. Now we must target the bronze medal” (Belgium coach Jean-François de Sart). Our next match is the Bronze Medal Match this Friday. We will play an angry Brazil from their loss to Argentina. Belgium already played Brazil in the group stages. That match ended well for the Belgians (Brazil 1-0 Belgium) considering we were against Brazil and we finished with only 9 men. This next match could be very different. Dunga’s men will be looking to take some silverware from this competition. It won’t be easy. Line-ups:

Nigeria:
VANZEKIN Ambruse
OKONKWO Chibuzor
APAM Onyekachi
ADELEYE Dele
ADEFEMI Olubayo
KAITA Sani
AJILORE Ebenezer
OGBUKE OBASI Chinedu
OBINNA Victor
OKORONKWO Solomon
ODEMWINGIE Peter
JAMES Monday
ISAAC Promise
AMBROSE Efe
ANICHEBE Victor
EKPO Emmanuel
EZENWA Ikechukwu
OLUFEMI Oladapo

Belgium:
BAILLY Logan
DE ROOVER Sepp
POCOGNOLI Sebastien
SIMAEYS Jeroen
HAROUN Faris
VERTONGHEN Jan
MARTENS Maarten
VANDEN BORRE Anthony
DE MUL Tom
MIRALLAS Kevin
DEMBELE Moussa
MA-KALAMBAY Yves
CIMAN Laurent
MULEMO Landry
ODIDJA-OFOE Vadis
DE WINTER Yves
VERMAELEN Thomas
FELLAINI Marouane

Yellow Cards: Ebenezer AJILORE (NGA) 5′, Jeroen SIMAEYS (BEL) 41′, Chibuzor OKONKWO (NGA) 61′, Vadis ODJIDJA-OFOE (BEL) 69′, Jan VERTONGHEN (BEL) 76′.

Goals: Olubayo ADEFEMI (17′), Chinedu OGBUKE OBASI (59′, 72′), Chibuzor OKONKWO (78′), Laurent CIMAN (88′).

1st Half
-Nigeria starts the match off with immediate pressure on the Belgian defense. Odemwingie was a part of the nice buildup.
-Ajilore gets an early booking (4′).
-Dembélé wins an early corner (8′).
-Nigeria continues to successfully find Odemwingie on the attack.
-Poor defense lets Adefemi score on a rebound.
-Nigeria continued to dominate possession.
-The Belgiums are having trouble sinking their teeth into the match.
-Towards the end of the half Belgium finally had some possession.
-de Sart is agitated.
-Obasi keeps showing us his technical prowess with stepovers and crisp passing.
-Handball from Simaeys draws a yellow card.
-Belgium’s 4-5-1 isn’t faring well against Nigeria’s 4-3-3.
-44′: Mirallas and Dembélé had a nice opportunity on a counter-attack.
-45′: Linesman gets an offfside wrong. A replay shows that Mirallas was well onside. Bad call.

2nd Half
-Terrific save by Bailly in the 50′.
-The Nigerians continue to play offensive footie.
-Vanzekin continues to make great saves.
-Belgium has picked up the pressure in this period.
-Vertonghen almost scored on a volley.
-Belgian defenders plead for an offside, but the linesman kept his flag down. Nigeria scores again pouring salt into Belgium’s wounds. Belgium has half an hour to even the score.
-Martens is substituted. He gives his captain armband to Vertonghen.
-Bailly has played well in goal all match for Belgium. He makes another great save in the 65′.
-It’s over for Belgium *sighs*. Nigeria scores again in the 72nd minute.
-Belgium makes their final substitutions.
-Dembélé hasn’t played as well in this match.
-Okonkwo patiently waits and scores in the 78′. The ball hit the side post and ricocheted in. Logan Bailly seems crushed mentally.
-de Sart has a hopeless expression on his face.
-Nigeria continues to dominate possession even late in the match.
-Laurent Ciman gets sort of a consolation goal for Belgium in the 88′.
-Final score Nigeria 4-1 Belgium.

Also, today the Belgium National Football Team (Rode Duivels as opposed to our Olympic squad) play Germany today in an international friendly at Nürnberg. We will be without Fellaini, Kompany, and Mpenza in that match.