Chairman of Kaduna United Emmanuel Babayaro, who won an Olympic gold medal with the Nigeria Under-23s at the men’s football event of the 1996 Olympics, says Samson Siasia shouldn’t have withdrawn top striker Sadiq Umar in Nigeria’s 0-2 semi final loss to Germany.
” We lost a fighter when he ( Sadiq Umar) was taking off, the Germans were struggling to cope with his constant harassment, they settled into their rhythm after his removal” Babayaro told Owngoalnigeria.com.
“At the dying stages of the game, we needed height upfront, we needed someone who could knock the ball down, unfortunately the boy (Junior Ajayi) my very good friend Siasia brought in added nothing to the team.
” Sadiq was decent and shouldn’t have been replaced that early, Aminu Umar did nothing close to him but he lasted the entire duration of the game. Overall, I think we lost to a better side”.
