The race to the finals of the 16th African Youth Championships in Rwanda 2009 gets tougher with the first leg matches of the second round scheduled for the last weekend of September.

The Gambia U-20 side, who had a bright start in the first round after beating Mauritania in both legs, will face a difficult fixture on September 27th 2008, when they will travel to Accra to take on the Black Starlets. But the Assistant Coach of The Gambia U-20 side Lamin Sarr, while speaking to Pointsports on his team’s level of preparedness, stated that the players are ready to face Ghana in three weeks time.

“Our dream and aspiration is to beat Ghana and qualify to the 2009 championship in Rwanda next year. So we are working hard towards that,” he asserted.

He pointed out that Gambian players plying their trade in international leagues like Sainey Nyassi, Sanna Nyassi, Sainey Touray, Pa Modou Jagne, Abdoulie Mansally and Sainey Sidibeh will be made available for the encounter.

Meanwhile, Ghana is equally prepared as the team, said to feature Andre Ayew, son of African football legend Abedi Pele including five other foreign-based namely Ishmael Yartey (Benefica, Portugal), Daniel Opare (Real Madrid, Spain), Sadick Adams (Athletico Madrid, Spain) and France-based duo, Enoch Adu Kofi and Abeiku Quansah look poised for a bright campaign.

The senior national Team Coach Paul Put will meet with the team managers of Gambian starlets Omar Koroma, Mustapha Carayol, Edirisa Sonko and Cherno Samba who are all plying their trade in England as part of a five-day mission to Europe.

Coach Put, who left Banjul for Belgium yesterday, will be on a players scouting tour in the UK and will have the chance to meet Gambian International Mustapha Carayol’s team Torquay who play against CrawleyTown on Saturday.

The same day he will meet two other players, Omar Koroma and Cherno Samba, in Heathrow. The coach’s visit to the players is in line with his future plans to invite them to play for the senior national team by monitoring their performances with their various clubs.

Coach Put will also be meeting a company called Gert Laereman. The company specialises in the organization of training camps and friendly games inside Europe and will hold talks and make a proposal for a friendly match with a senior national team in either Belgium, France, Holland or the UK.

He said this is as a result of the lesson he learnt recently in his efforts to stage a friendly game for the Scorpions with Iran that never materialised. “ It was very unfortunate that the test game could not take place before our Liberia game in Banjul,” he pointed out.

The Scorpions boss, who will have a busy schedule for the five-day trip will also be meeting with Sportsvus, a Belgian company that deals with an analysing DVD system of football matches. According to him, he intends to be using the system for the matches of the senior national team and even for the U-20 and 17 categories. “I have an appointment with the company as I am working on the need to analyse the matches of the senior national team. I have already bought the licence from the company and have already made analysis of the Liberian team using the system and will show it to the players when they are in camp. This system is in use by some of the major clubs in Europe and is in line with the professionalism I wish to introduce into our training routines with the national teams.”

While in Belgium, he will also be meeting with sport equipment dealers Jako for equipment sponsorship for the national teams.

He is expected back in Banjul on Thursday August 28th 2008 and two days later will head for camp with the team at the Seaview hotel, ahead of their crucial group 6 game against bottom placed Liberia in Banjul scheduled for September 6.

The group is headed by Senegal with 8 points, Algeria claimed the second spot with 6 followed by the Gambia with 5. Liberia are at the bottom of the group with 2 points following two draws against The Gambia and Senegal at home.

The annual Nawettan tournament is a well-contested and competitive championship featuring teams from around the communities staging the event.

Being so far the only tournament that gives members of the community a sense of belonging and zeal to troop in numbers to Nawettan playing grounds to support their teams, it is always much awaited by commuters as in the case of Serrkunda West. This is one of the major Nawettan centres in the country.

The Serrkunda West championship which kicked off over the week and looks like the place to be over the weekend as very interesting and appetising matches are expected to take place.

As part of the group matches of the weekend encounters of the  Serrekunda West  Nawettan, Saalbi will meet Gamstar on Friday.

Other interesting encounters will include Pipeline against Ajax Saturday morning.  Super cup champions, Tigers will meet Ngoyan in the mid afternoon encounter.  Kanifing United, defending champions of the League, will clash with the Ebo-town side, Unicorns, later in the evening.

On Sunday, Jollof will meet Old Hand at 9am and newcomer’s Cambell town will meet the formidable Gintos FC at 3pm.  Gintos grabbed a 2-1 victory over Luzan in the opening of the group matches.

Kanifing Estate will take on Jeshwang United at 5pm.

The second round matches of the 2008 Gamtel sponsored FA Cup championship will be played today at the various grounds.

In today’s fixtures, FA Cup defending champions, Gambia Ports Authority, will take on newly promoted side, Tallinding United, whilst Flaminins take on Nema United.

Brikama Ba , who knocked out Jarra West in the first-round matches will take on SK East United, while Waterman battle it out with Kaira Silo.

Brikama United will face Young Africans, while Interior take on Ham Ham.The winners in the second round matches will join the eight awaiting teams in the top flight for the third round matches.

Week three of the second round matches of The Gambia Football Association Regional First Division League have ended with well contested matches and interesting performances over the weekend. The biggest surprise was bottom place occupants Upper Badibou who registered their first win in the championship. They defeated Lower Nuimi 3-2 in Farafenni and increased their points to four. They are still lying at the bottom of the table. Lower Nuimi are second to last with six points.

Jarra West shared points with Waterman in a 1-1 draw on Saturday in Mansajang. The draw has given them has taken them a step further in the table. They are leading the table so far with 17 points while Water man are third with 13 points.

Brikamaba defeated ADWAC 2-0 in Kerewan.  The victory has increased their points to 15 and earned them second position. ADWAC are on 10 points.

Meanwhile, week four will resume August 3rd 2008, below are the fixtures:

03/08/08  ADWAC  Vs Upper Badibou   Farafenni

03/08/08  Lower Nuimi  Vs Jarra West  Soma

06/08/08  Upper Badibou  Vs Waterman   Mansajang

06/08/08  Jarra West Vs Brikamaba