Obinna: Written in the stars
"I believe that it's our destiny to win the gold. Both teams deserve to be in the final, but I think we will be the ones who end up as the champions."
As opening lines go, Victor Obinna's must rank among one of the most dramatic that FIFA.com has ever heard. Speaking to world football's premier website shortly before his team left Shanghai for a date in Saturday's final against Argentina, the Chievo striker was incredibly upbeat about the Africans' chances against the Albiceleste.
"We're really confident, but we'll just have to wait and see, because Argentina have the likes of Messi, Aguero, Riquelme and Mascherano in their squad and they will give us a hard match," he continued.
"But it's not going to be easy for them. We have some great individual players and the coach has moulded us into a team. We're working hard for one another and we're getting to be more compact in our defence.
As opening lines go, Victor Obinna's must rank among one of the most dramatic that FIFA.com has ever heard. Speaking to world football's premier website shortly before his team left Shanghai for a date in Saturday's final against Argentina, the Chievo striker was incredibly upbeat about the Africans' chances against the Albiceleste.
"We're really confident, but we'll just have to wait and see, because Argentina have the likes of Messi, Aguero, Riquelme and Mascherano in their squad and they will give us a hard match," he continued.
"But it's not going to be easy for them. We have some great individual players and the coach has moulded us into a team. We're working hard for one another and we're getting to be more compact in our defence.
"We have only conceded three goals during this tournament, and I think we're getting better as a team with each game that we play. For me, our best performance was against Belgium, and our second-best performance was against Côte d'Ivoire in the quarter-finals. But we want to be at our peak for the final match, and I believe that we will be."
Belonging in Beijing‘Dream Team IV' arrived at the Olympic Village in the Chinese capital on Wednesday afternoon, and Obinna, the captain of the team against Côte d'Ivoire and Belgium, has admitted that there is no place in the world he would rather be.
"It's a sweet feeling, it's an unbelievable feeling," he smiled. "To know that the hard work before and during the competition has taken us to the final and a shot at the gold is incredible.
"To see the improvements we've made since our performance in our first game is absolutely wonderful - we have really grown as a team during this tournament, and now we're going to Beijing. Reaching the final was one of our objectives when we got here - and now we have to make sure we win the gold."
The 21-year-old, who helped Nigeria get to the semi-finals of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in 2006, has netted three times in the tournament so far, but he believes that his fellow frontmen are the ones who may hold the key to victory against Argentina.
Payback timeThere is plenty of motivation for Dream Team IV to turn their fantasy into reality. Exactly half of their 18-man squad at these Olympic Games represented Nigeria at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Netherlands 2005.
Ambruse Vanzekin, Onyekachi Apam, Dele Adeleye, Monday James, Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi, Sani Kaita, Promise Isaac, Solomon Okoronkwo and Olubayo Adefani had their hearts broken in Utrecht as Lionel Messi's 75th penalty sealed a 2-1 tournament victory for the Albiceleste. Unsurprisingly, Obinna believes that it's time to take revenge.
"We are going to have chances, and I believe that with the strikers that we have, we are going to score goals," he said. "We have a few experienced players up front, and I think that we will score. We have a history of reaching the finals of tournaments, so I think that is going to help.
"Obviously this game is a repeat of the 1996 Olympic final, but it is also a repeat of the 2005 U-20 final, in which some of my team-mates played. We were unfortunate to lose that match, so we're desperate for revenge on Saturday."
"It's a sweet feeling, it's an unbelievable feeling," he smiled. "To know that the hard work before and during the competition has taken us to the final and a shot at the gold is incredible.
"To see the improvements we've made since our performance in our first game is absolutely wonderful - we have really grown as a team during this tournament, and now we're going to Beijing. Reaching the final was one of our objectives when we got here - and now we have to make sure we win the gold."
The 21-year-old, who helped Nigeria get to the semi-finals of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in 2006, has netted three times in the tournament so far, but he believes that his fellow frontmen are the ones who may hold the key to victory against Argentina.
Payback timeThere is plenty of motivation for Dream Team IV to turn their fantasy into reality. Exactly half of their 18-man squad at these Olympic Games represented Nigeria at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Netherlands 2005.
Ambruse Vanzekin, Onyekachi Apam, Dele Adeleye, Monday James, Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi, Sani Kaita, Promise Isaac, Solomon Okoronkwo and Olubayo Adefani had their hearts broken in Utrecht as Lionel Messi's 75th penalty sealed a 2-1 tournament victory for the Albiceleste. Unsurprisingly, Obinna believes that it's time to take revenge.
"We are going to have chances, and I believe that with the strikers that we have, we are going to score goals," he said. "We have a few experienced players up front, and I think that we will score. We have a history of reaching the finals of tournaments, so I think that is going to help.
"Obviously this game is a repeat of the 1996 Olympic final, but it is also a repeat of the 2005 U-20 final, in which some of my team-mates played. We were unfortunate to lose that match, so we're desperate for revenge on Saturday."
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