Taribo West Describes Dream Team VI Olympics Group As Tough

Former Nigerian international, Taribo West, has described Nigeria's opponent in this year's summer Olumpics in Brazil as difficult.

Nigeria are in Group B alongside Sweden, Colombia and Japan, and the 1996 Olympics gold medalist said "That is a group of death,".

"These countries have very good youth teams, so it’s going to be a very challenging group. It reminds me of our group at the 2002 World Cup, where we were drawn with Argentina, England and Sweden."

 "The Colombians have young lads and they play very good football; the Japanese have gone very far in terms of professionalism but I think if we can run better, and we are physically fit, we can manage them."

Contrary to Taribo's opinion, Ambrose Vanzekin, who won silver medal at the Beijing 2008 games, said that the group isn’t as difficult as it looks, saying the U-23 team are favourites to advance from the group.

"I don’t think it’s a difficult group. We defeated Japan in 2008; the Colombians are physical, just like us, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Sweden are not a force at U-23 level. We have a lot of quality players who can take this team very far in the tournament," the ex-Insurance goalkeeper said.

Taribo also believes that with the right preparations, the U-23 team can compete among the best at the Olympics.

He added, "Exposure is very important in international competitions, so they have to play a lot of friendly matches. We have an advantage with an experienced coach like Siasia in charge of the team but the boys need to work very hard."

"If they can continue the way they did in Senegal, they can progress from the group stage but it’s really going to be very tough for them. It’s a competitive group and if you qualify from there, it means you can contend for medals at the event." Punch