Gambia Drawn In Tough Group

Stage two of the CAF World Cup Qualifying campaign was announced last weekend in Durban with Gambia drawn alongside Algeria, Liberia and Senegal in group 6.
Following the groupings, Pointsport carried out a vox pox to sound out reaction from the sporting fraternity, below are the views of Gambians concerning the draw:

Kaba Ceesay  Fifa Players Agent
The groupings looked interesting but I can tell you that the Gambia face with a difficult task to qualify from an intriguing looking group six were you have our rivals Senegal. Algeria are going through a bit of hard time compared to their glorious past but they have some good potentials and are willing to come back.
Gambia’s qualification is difficult but not impossible as thought by many. What we do need now is to strategies and workout a reasonable achievable target just to make sure our dreams turn to reality. I think our target should be 10 points from possible 18 what ever may come by our way is a bonus. 10 points must go through.

STRATEGY
Gambia must win all home matches and target a single point from the three away fixtures.
On paper it is Algeria and Senegal who appear to possess the reserves of firepower and experience needed to vie for top spot in the group. The less impressive Liberians have endured lean times since the days of the great George Weah. But The Gambia with the blossoming of such talented youths dovetailing nicely with the senior side’s imminent qualifying campaign, the immediate future looks bright for us.

TECHNICAL  ANALYSIS
According to the FIF A world rankings the Gambia are behind all the other teams in group six on the average ranking for the past four years base on the lowest and highest places.
Algeria recorded 73.250 averages from February 2004, ranked 52 to 2006, ranked 93. Senegal in June 2004 they ranked 26 but in August 2007, they were 46 which is an average of 34.208.
Liberia ranked 106 in 2004 June whilst in October 2007 they slipped to 143 an average of 122.833, the Gambia was ranked 166 in May 2006 but in October 2007 we occupied the 112 spot which shows an average of 145.500.

According to the world governing body all the three opposing teams registered a negative trend during the period under review except the Gambia. Present ranking for all the teams in group 6 are as follows: Algeria is ranked 81, Liberia 146, Senegal 38 and the Gambia 111.
Looking at the teams present form based on their past three matches, the Gambia ranked high above Liberia and Algeria but slightly behind Senegal who suffered one of their worst defeats against Morocco last week.
Algeria lost two and won one, Liberia lost two drew one, Gambia won one drew two whilst Senegal won two lost one.

Gambians have something to cheer about based on these facts but mind you, modern football always gets defeated when data analysis is used to overcome a lack of technique and tactical presence.

WHAT SHOULD BE OUR MENTAL STATE OF MIND
At senior level The Gambia lacks footballing pedigree which sometimes plays a big role in confidence. This however emanated from the fact that the Gambia has great potential at youth level but does not transfer this to senior level football.
Reasons could be attributed to:

1, seriously under scouted by European clubs
2, because we are under scouted, the players, albeit talented, end up playing for second rate clubs around the world and thus do not have the necessary platform to develop as footballers. When these players eventually return to the senior national team and play against the top teams, these gulf in class in usually exposed.
But with this present generation of footballers, played against their compatriots at two different levels and did extremely well, they need adequate support with the fusion of few from the old guard to foot the bill.
Ousman Jallow and Pa Modou Jagne from the new generation contributed positively when we defeated mighty Algeria here in Banjul. The Senegalese team that defeated The Gambia in Dakar are four years older today while the new generation of our players aged the contrast in footballing terms which is very positive indeed.

Let us put behind our poor records against Senegal at senior level but use the strength of success that the logical context of our different categories are registering since 2005. By doing so I think the 10 points target to book our qualification to the next stage is achievable.

Pap Saine Veteran Sport Journalist, Managing Director of Point Newspaper
“There is no underdog in football now because in football time comes and time goes and what is needed is big investment from the  authorities so that we can achieve our goals” he said.
He added that good preparation including several test matches, both home and away, with big  teams.
The Gambia and Senegal have played 37 times with The Scorpions suffering 20 defeats by Senegal, winning eight times and nine drawn games.

In our game with Senegal the first thing we should do is to diffuse tension between the two countries because matches come and go but family ties are always there. We should take all our opponents seriously and in all our encounters we should go to the field with an open mind. Senegal are known for their counter attacks so we should try to destroy their counter attacks.

With Senegal in junior level we always gain the upper hand. The year 2000 our U-20 eliminated Senegal’s U-20 and our U-17 always have edge on Senegal U-17.
Our only problem with Senegal is always the Senior team. He advised the Technicians to carry out research about our weakness against Senegal, Liberia
They eliminated the Gambia first in 1979 in Monrovia in the late President Tolberts trophy by a lone goal. On two occasions in 1999 to 2003 they  eliminated the Gambia  on both World cup preliminaries  and café nation qualifiers.

Meanwhile with Algeria, we played them twice. We lost to them in Algeria and defeated them in Banjul this year.
Mr Saine believes that there is a bright future for our young generation of football players who have exposure worldwide, the cream of the U-20 team. He was quick to add that we don’t need to be dependant on optimism with regard to the future of Gambian football, we need good preparation to meet the challenges.

Eliman Jammeh Scorpion Fan
I believe the first thing The Gambia should do is to start things rolling. We need a series of test matches. And only players playing active football should be invited to join the national team.  The Gambia should do away with the last minute syndrome. Though the group is tough but with the necessary preparation we can make it.

A Sports Journalist
The Gambia is in the group of death as Senegal, Algeria and Liberia are big names in football. But Gambia can make it if, we have the necessary preparation. We have the product to do the job, we only need a proper transition of our players from the lower categories to the Senior team. We need proper preparation so campaigns can yield results.

Ebou  Cham Joof  alias Luekeh former Ham Ham Coach & Squad Player
“The Gambia is well known in football and is no more an underdog. I am sure if early preparation is made we will qualify without any doubts about it, because we have good players who can deliver on expectations.”
Musa Njie Head Of Gambia Football Association Technical Committee
“The draw is fair enough but in Gambia’s group if you go by the ranking one will say that Gambia and Liberia are underdogs because they are the lowest rank teams in the group but those things do not exist any more” he said.
“I believe that all the groups are tough if Gambia want to qualify we most look at our group opponents on how they are structures and what they can do in terms of preparation.  This is what we need to do.

Senegal are always ahead of us structurally, technically and administratively.
We have done well in defeating Algeria but on the whole we have to put up the right structures because if you are playing with certain nations you should have the same level of preparedness and structure.
Currently we have big chances in the National team, spectators see, different faces and this is our vision 2010 and this is where we are now. We saw some of the U-20 players in the Gambia V Algeria game and more will be seen as we have very outstanding players also playing outside Gambia and now we are set to do or die as we have come to an epics showdown.

He highlighted that the only problem is the fans as they need to forget about the past between the Gambia and Senegal and avoid a repeat of what happened in 2003.

Modou Lamin Badjie a Soccer Fan in Ban jul
“The Gambia can qualify from group 6 adding the  only thing the team need is early preparation for the  qualifiers”.
Binta Saho a resident of Banjul  said ,”the Gambia group  is  very difficult. But called on the relevant authorities to put all the necessary logistics in place for the team so that the players will not encounter any problem during the course of the qualifiers.

Alhagie Coker said : Football in  The Gambia has now developed so no team will class The Gambia as underdog “ we have  a big task ahead of use but I believe with prayers and dedication The Gambia can qualify from the group”

Abdul Aziz Titao Mendy of the National Sports Council
“I am very happy with the group. Both Senegal and Algeria are world cup teams, Gambia and Liberia have not yet reach that level. Though Gambia is rated well by many African countries all we need to do is early preparation, and scout for players that are playing active football and together with lots of test games I think we can make it.