Kojo Must Take the Credit for Lone Star Qualification


By Wleh Bedell
bedellblessing@yahoo.com
+2316106293

The Lone Star of Liberia qualification to the final round of the nations cup qualifier via a draw to the Brave Warriors of Namibia was quite a shock with the team now waiting for the first week of July to see what the draw will bring for it as it is expected to play one of the 16 finalists in the Equatorial Guinea, Gabon 2012 Nations Cup.

After a slender 1-0 lead in the first leg courtesy of a close range effort from the curl-legged finisher Dioh Williams on February 29, at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium (ATS), the Lone Star managed a pulsating goalless draw away in Windhoek to sail through.

But, on a more candid note, much of the credit for the team's passage to the final round of the qualifiers must go to ex-international Thomas Kojo who as caretaker Coach led the team to the grueling 1-0 win in the first leg, but was ironically not given the job despite the team's success in the first leg with the newly appointed Technical Director of the LFA, Henry Brown, tactically conjuring the football house to ensure that his close friend Joseph Kaytu Smith returned from the United States to get at the helm of the red, white and blue to the discontentment of many.

It was the lone goal during Kojo's short stint that has taken the senior national team to the final round of qualifier and it was Kojo who masterminded the plot in doing the damage to the Namibians in the first leg. Having a 1-0 lead from the first leg, the Lone Star had some advantage as they played a negative game, something Kaytu Smith has now learned from since failing to do so in Senegal and was heavily criticized.

Indeed, the credit must go to Kojo for the qualification of the Lone Star that is now 180 minutes away from its third African Nations Cup finals with some stakeholders upon hearing the news of the team's qualification on Saturday, June 16, after the match noted "all hail kojo for Lone Star's qualification".


Before the away draw to Namibia, the Lone Star had last drawn away to the then Zaire now DR Congo on October 16, 1996 0-0 in a qualifier. The national team has therefore drawn a match away to Namibia after 33 competitive matches.