By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Sierra Leone and Lesotho will faceoff today, for the first time in an international competition. Both teams will be playing their opening game in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. And the Leone Stars coach, Silas Tetteh is optimistic after the disappointing exit from the World Cup qualifier at the hands of Liberia.
Sierra Leone is 117 on the latest FIFA ranking, 21 places above Lesotho. In a group with also Benin (82) and Nigeria (35), Lesotho and Sierra Leone are clearly the minnows and they will have it all to do over the coming months.
Preparations for Leone Stars have not been rosy. The FA sacked their Assistant Coach Musa Kallon almost two weeks ago. The technical team dropped key striker, Musa Tombo few days ago. And a key leader in the team, Kei Kamara was replaced late yesterday after he skipped the last three training sessions for unexplained reasons and walked out of training unceremoniously.
Despite all this turbulence, Coach Sellas Tetteh said they are not fazed. The preparation for this match has also been overshadowed by the FIFA ban on fans from watching the national team play at home.
This is the first time Sierra Leone will be playing a competitive match in an empty stadium, and Coach Tetteh says as bad as it is psychologically, it is something they have been preparing for.
“It is not good news, but we have to work very hard to at least make people happy by getting a respectable result. To play a game without soccer fans is a difficult task but since we had identified it, we are going to work very hard to control and regulate so we can come away with a very good result,” he told Politico on Tuesday.
Lesotho national team nicknamed Likuena have been together for five days. Like Tetteh, Likuena coach, Thabo Senong says the absence of fans will have an impact on the game.
“For us every training session we treat it as a match, so maybe psychologically it will look like a training session because of no spectators, but mentally and tactically it will definitely look like a game. For me I think they are used to that kind of set up. They have to concentrate and respect Sierra Leone,” Senong told Politico.
The Vice President of the Lesotho Football Association, Rantsudise Matete says: “We are going to miss those supporters.”
Lesotho comes in to this match having lost just once in the last five games and drawing the other four. The only last-minute changes they had to do was to replace defender John Mohai with Thabo Matsoele due to injury.
Leone Stars won their last home match in Freetown against Liberia. But that did not count for anything considering the team did not qualify. However, coach Tetteh says they will still have to decide on whether striker Kei Kamara will be included in the match day squad.
“Football everything is possible. I cannot comment on that. What is much more important is for us to get a respectable result tomorrow,” he said.
But two hours after the interview, the technical team decided to finally drop him. In his place comes Sallieu Tarawallie from FC Kallon.
Following the removal of Kamara strikers like Mohamed Buya Turay and Suffian Kalokoh will now have a shoot to rise to the occasion and shine.
Defender Mustapha Dumbuya was also replaced by Yeami Dunia in the squad after his flight got delayed.
There have been talks around Likuena that they might take this game a bit easy considering their next opponents will be Nigeria on Sunday. But Senong says they are giving their very best to this game in respect of the quality of their opposition.
“At the moment we don’t even think about the next opposition. We have thrown all our focus and energy into Sierra Leone. We must respect them. We can’t even talk about another opposition because we will lose a bit of focus,” he told Politico.
Leone Stars will travel to Benin for their second game on Sunday.
While Sierra Leone will be playing Lesotho in Freetown, in another Group L clash, Nigeria will be hosting Benin in their opening fixture.
© 2019 Politico Online
