By Amjata Bayoh
Almost 26 years since Sierra Leone’s male National football team participated in the Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON), the dream of this football-crazy nation finally became a reality after the Leone Stars beat Benin by a lone goal in Conakry back in June 2021.
When Kei Kamara stepped over the ball to take the decisive penalty which eventually qualified the team to the nation's cup, memories of the team captain Oumaru Zengalay Bangura’s stoppage-time penalty miss against Liberia in the World Cup qualification in Freetown resurfaced on the minds of nervous fans who were following the match on television. This time the sad memory only lasted a few seconds as Kei Kamara's powerful strike from the spot hit the back of the net, sending the nation into a frenzy and wild celebrations.
We forgive Zengalay for missing that decisive penalty against Liberia as this is normal in football – even the best players do miss penalties. However, we cannot underestimate the consequence of his penalty miss – it cost us a golden opportunity to participate in the Africa World Cup qualification group stages, play competitive matches during the international break, and possibly qualify for the World Cup in Qatar 2022. Out of 24 nations that qualified for AfCON 22 in Cameroon only Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Comoros missed out on the group stages of the World Cup qualifications.
The most important thing was to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations for which we say kudos to the team for achieving such a milestone. Before we juxtapose our preparation with that of our group opponents at the AfCON, firstly we would want to let the Leone Stars coach understand that we find ourselves in the same group with teams who all booked their place to Cameroon with more points than Leone Stars did in the qualifying stages, and a couple of them are powerful football nations.
What this means is that we must expect some tough tests in Cameroon with the likes of Equatorial Guinea who finished as runners-up of Group J with 9 points behind adept Tunisia, to qualify for the AfCON, while Cote D’Ivoire and Algeria comfortably topped Groups K and H with 13 and 14 points respectively to qualify for the AfCON.
It is evident that World Cup qualifiers are more competitive than international friendlies. Our group opponents are involved in competitive football while Sierra Leone is engaged in international friendlies. It is a great idea we are playing so many international friendlies. But that does not amount to competitive football. Of our three group opponents, only Algeria made it to the knockout stages of the World Cup qualification rounds. Algeria, Cote D'Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea all have to wait for the final group game of their World Cup qualification to decide their faith of qualification to the next round.
Defending champions of the Africa Nations Cup, Algeria, were the top-scoring team at this year’s Africa World Cup qualification group stages. The Desert Warriors scored 25 goals in six qualifying matches extending their record unbeaten run to 32 matches. A 2-2 draw against a stubborn unbeaten Burkina Faso side who also needed a win to qualify was enough to crown Algeria as Group A leaders with 14 points.
Cote D'Ivoire had enjoyed four consecutive wins in their previous World Cup qualification matches and needed just a point in the final group match away to Cameroon to qualify. The Elephants tasted defeat for the first time in their final match, the Indomitable Lions were the dominant force putting an end to the Elephants’ stellar form and hope of qualifying for the World Cup. Cote D'Ivoire finished as runners-up with 13 points behind Cameroon who topped Group D with 15 points.
Leone Stars’ least ranked opponent at the AFCON group stages, Equatorial Guinea, succumbed as runners-up to Tunisia for the second time this year as the north Africans topped both their AfCON and World Cup qualification groups. Since losing their opening World Cup qualification match to Tunisia 3-0, Equatorial Guinea have scored at least a goal in each of their following five World Cup qualifying matches and remained unbeaten since losing to Tunisia. They beat Tunisia 1-0 in the second leg.
Equatorial Guinea went into their final World Cup qualification match with the same points (10) as Tunisia who were leading the log on the away-goals rule. A comfortable 3-1 home victory for Tunisia over Zambia and a 1-1 away draw for Equatorial Guinea in Mauritania on their final qualification match means Tunisia topped Group B with 13 points and Equatorial Guinea finished second with 11 points.
Unlike Algeria, Cote D'Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea who were all involved in the World Cup qualifications, Sierra Leone played five international friendly matches against Ethiopia, The Gambia, South Sudan, Morocco and Comoros. Leone Stars picked up five points, scored four goals in five friendlies, keeping just a single clean sheet which is concerning. Meanwhile, Algeria, Cote D'Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea all kept three clean sheets in their six World Cup qualification matches, scoring 25, 10 and 6 goals respectively.
As Leone Stars resumed training this week ahead of the African Cup of Nations, which is just a little over a month away, we hope the coach and his technical team take time to study the prowess of our opponents and make the best out of those experiences to give us a memorable AfCON experience in January. John Keister notes: If you know your opponent and you know yourself there is no battle you cannot face.
Amjata Bayoh
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