Liberia Locks Horn With Jamaica in 1st Int’l Friendly

 

Written by Leroy M. Sonpon, III
leroysonpon@yahoo.com
(231-886-585875)
 

In an attempt to aggressively prepare for the second round of the 2013 African Cup of Nations, credible reports say, the Liberia’s Lone Star team will lock horns with the Reggae Boys of the Jamaica national football team, in its first international friendly.

Reports say the ‘Reggae Boyz’ will host the red-white-and-blue boys at the Gillette Stadium, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Boston, United States of America (USA) on Saturday, July 28, 2012.

The Jamaica football team is typically one of the top ranked teams in the National association football teams of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) and has won the Caribbean Cup five times. The country is the 60th on the FIFA Coca Cola June Ranking and the 6th in the CONCACAF ranking.

The match with Liberia, according to the Jamaican website, is aimed to prepare ‘the Reggae Boyz’ in the ongoing Group A CONCACAF World Cup qualifying battle.

The Website further says the Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz displayed an uninspiring performance in their 0-0 stalemate against a robust Antigua and Barbuda team in their Group A CONCACAF World Cup on Tuesday night, the 12th of June.

The tie now puts Jamaica on four points in Group A of the semi-final phase of the play-offs, the same as the USA whose game against Guatemala also ended in a tie.

The website indicated that Antiguans showed no respect for The Reggae Boyz and at times out hustled their much-fancied opponents. Jamaica, although having the better of play and dominant possession, were unable to penetrate the strong Antiguan backline. At times the Reggae Boyz seemed at a lost for ideas in breaking down the Antiguans and resorted to playing long balls over the top with the aim for the speedy forwards out run their opponents

According to the fixture, the Reggae Boyz will host the USA in Kingston on Friday, September 7 and play their return-leg on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 in Ohio, Columbus, USA.

They will also facing Guatemala and Antigua & Barbuda on the 12th and 16th of October respectively.

Meanwhile, the Lone Star of Liberia, which is 124th in the FIFA Coca Cola June Ranking and the 37th in the CAF ranking, have welcomed the 1st international friendly on the expense of the Reggae Boys, though officials of the LFA remained tightlipped.

The Liberian Lone Star will benefit round-trip’s tickets for a 30-man delegation, accommodation, feeding, internal transportation and a fielding fee of US$30,000.

When our reporters spoke with the Director of Communications of the LFA, Henry Flomo as well as the President of the FA, Musa Bility, both men disclosed pending international friendlies, with topnotch countries, but failed to state the specific countries and date.

However, football pundits indicated that a friendly match with Jamaica will boost the morale of the team as well as the ‘individual players’ owing to the ranking in both FIFA and CAF.

They urged Coach Smith to use about 80% of the cream of local players and the 20% should comprise of foreign players.

They believed that the “cream of local based players” will go for an absolute win as a way to attract scouts for international contract.

“If the local players are fielded, it possible that they will be scouted and subsequently turned into foreign based players…which made our team better and will hugely contributes to the Lift Liberian Policy of the Government.

“So, we want to appeal to the coach that the team composition should definitely be: 80% Local players and 20% foreign based players,” Darius Topoe King, a keen follower of the game said.

It can be recalled, the Lone Star of Liberia have qualified for the second round of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, on a 1-0 aggregate.

Liberia’s pulsating 0-0 draws with the Brave Warriors of Namibia over the weekend in Windhoek have pushed the country to the the pre-final, owing to her first-leg’s 1-0 win over the Warriors, on Wednesday, February 29, 2012.

The 64th minute goal from the Swedish based lanky assassin Dioh Williams’s right in the goal mouth of the visitors after being released by the man from Moscow, Sekou Jabateh Oliseh, gave the 1996 African Nations Cup debutants (Liberia) a slender lead against the 1998 African Nations Cup debutants (Namibia).

Liberia is amongst the 30 teams which qualified for the second round of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

The organizer of CAF divulged that the draw for the second round will be held on Thursday, 5th of July, after the first round is completed.

15 winners from the 30 participating countries in the second round will qualify for the finals to join already qualified South Africa to lock horns for the Continental Trophy.

The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualification is the qualification process for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, the 29th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

CAF’s rules spell-out that in each of the three rounds; teams will be drawn into two-legged home-and-away knock-out ties. Aggregate goals are used to determine the winner. If the sides are level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule is applied, and if still level, the tie proceeds directly to a penalty shootout (no extra time is played).