By Amjata Bayoh
Sierra Leoneans are still struggling to forget Kei Kamara’s penalty miss against Equatorial Guinea which ended Leone Stars journey at the Africa Nations Cup in Cameroon in January 2022 – the country’s first appearance at the tourney in over 25 years. Their only hope is that joy will return in Ivory Coast in 2023. As things stand, that is a very tall order to achieve. Here is why:
The country kicked off the qualification campaign against an adept Nigerian side. A match that the Leone Stars should have won but ended up losing, narrowly. That was despite Jonathan Morsay’s debut goal which gave Leone Stars the lead in the 12th minute, only to be canceled out by goals from Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimen in the first half – enough to give the Super Eagles all three points.
Despite the 2-1 loss, Leones Stars created chances and troubled the Super Eagles. It was a performance that raised hopes and belief about Sierra Leone becoming second favourites to qualify from the group after Nigeria – even though Guinea Bissau’s 5-1 win over Sao Tome meant they were top of the group after match day 1 in group A on the 9th of June 22.
It left Leone Stars fans very optimistic about taking all three points when the team hosted Guinea Bissau on the 13 June 2022 at the Stade General Lansana Conte in Conakry while Sao Tome hosted Nigeria on the same day.
Sierra Leone started the game promisingly with hundreds of its nationals in their tricolour green, white and blue present at the stands cheering and chanting to support their darling Leone Stars. The boys created great scoring opportunities in the first half and hit the woodwork in the opening 10 minutes. They were by far the better side in the first half and should have been at least leading by a couple of goals in the opening 45 minutes but were not clinical to convert those precious goal-scoring opportunities in the first half which ended goalless.
At the break, a heavy downpour of rain affected the pitch which seemed to favour the Guineans as they scored two goals in the opening eight minutes of the second half. Just three minutes after their second goal, in the 56th minute, Sana of Guinea Bissau was sent off for a last man challenge on the Leone Star striker, Amadu Bakayoko.
At this stage most fans at the stands felt a little adjustment was needed at the top left or right flank as time was running out. Instead the Leone Stars boss chose to make his first changes 11 minutes after the red card which was halfway through the 2nd half. In the 67th minute, he brought on Sullay Kaikai to replace Kevin Wright at the left back position and five minutes later Augustus Kargbo was brought on for Kwamie Quee, who immediately impacted the match with his first run into the opposition box winning a penalty in less than three minutes after he had been brought on. Unfortunately for Leone Stars, that was missed by Musa Noah Kamara (Musa Tombo). Less than three minutes after the penalty, Kargbo drove into his right from the left flank to score Leone Stars’ first goal with a powerful right foot shot in the 78th minute, just six minutes after he had been brought on.
In the 88th minute Musa Noah Kamara made up for the missed penalty by scoring from close range after the Guinea Bissau goalie collided with Amadu Bakayoko. The Guinea Bissau player approached the referee protesting that there was an infringement on their goalie, who went unconscious after colliding with Bakayoko in the build-up to the equalizer. The match was stopped for over 7 minutes while the medical team were called to rush to the aid of the Bissau goalie who was stretchered off and put into an ambulance.
Seven minutes of stoppage time were added, and when the match resumed after the break Guinea Bissau were forced to replace their injured goalkeeper with an outfield player and play the remaining +7 minutes of stoppage time with nine men because they had already exhausted all substitutions before their goalkeeper’s injury.
It was difficult to accept for most Leone Stars fans that even with a two-man advantage and seven minutes of additional playing time, Leone Stars could not get the decisive goal to take all three points. The match ended Sierra Leone 2-2 Guinea Bissau while in the other Group A fixture Nigeria beat Sao Tome 10-0 to top the group with 6 points. Guinea Bissau dropped to 2nd with 4 points, Sierra Leone 3rd with 1 point and Sao Tome bottom with 0 points and 15 goals conceded in two matches already.
In September the Leone Stars will face Sao Tome over both legs. With the poor stats of Sao Tome most fans are still optimistic that Sierra Leone will take maximum 6 points off Sao Tome and hope the Super Eagles do the same against Guinea Bissau to put the Leones Stars favourite to end second in the group after Nigeria.
At this stage many believe failing to take maximum points off Sao Tome will be game over for Leone Stars chances of qualifying for the 2023 edition in Côte D’Ivoire, an experience most Sierra Leoneans will rue. Nobody in thus football mad nation wants to miss out on AfCON again after that rousing Cameroon experience early this year.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (22/06/22)
