 |
| Put looks on as Namibia dash Gambia's chances of qualifying (pix:cafonline) |
Warriors trash
Scorpions hopes for AFCON 2012
A
late goal for the Brave Warriors of Namibia was enough to thwart Gambia’s hopes of
making a debut at the 2012 African Nations Cup to be played in Gabon and Equatorial
Guinea in January.
During
a Windhoek-day that show the Scorpions of The Gambia create a few goal scoring
chances, Namibia’s South African-based striker Tangeni Shipahu make the most of
a defensive error and fired past goalkeeper Pa Dembo Touray in the final 10
minutes.
The
result left Gambia’s Belgian coach Paul Put rather dejected.
“I’m
so disappointed with the results and how the team played today. We needed to
win this match but we couldn't do it and now our destiny is not in our hands
anymore. Secondly, I believe my players today did not reach their levels of
potential and this cost us the game. We should have played better than this”,
Put is quoted to have told cafonline.
Following
the lost in the Namibian capital, Windhoek on match-day five of the campaign on
Saturday, talks of Gambia’s chances of qualifying are either delusional or just
plain draft. However, coach Put told the website of the Confederation of
African Football (CAF), cafonline, that his side still has a chance of
qualifying based on CAF’s ruling in an appeal filed by Namibia against Burkina
Faso over the eligibility of defender
Herve Zengue.
Asked
if he still have a chance of making the finals, Put said: “Depending on how CAF
rules in the Namibia-Burkina Faso case, and how we do at home against Burkina
Faso, we might have a chance if it all goes in our favour. We still have
a dream and it lives on until the final day, we have one more game and that
counts a lot for us.”
Late
last year, the Scorpions defeated Namibia 3-1 in a corresponding fixture in The
Gambian capital, Banjul only to succumb to a defeat 3-1 to Burkina Faso in
Ouagadougou in March 2010.
With
one more game to play against Burkina Faso, Gambia and Namibia (played all
games) are tied on three points while Burkina lead Group F with nine points.
Author: Modou
S. Joof for The Voice Newspaper
No comments:
Post a Comment
The views expressed in this section are the authors' own. It does not represent The North Bank Evening Standard (TNBES)'s editorial policy. Also, TNBES is not responsible for content on external links.