Lone Star Steps Up Training Ahead of 2014 Qualifier With Senegal

Intensifying training: Gebro is being sandwiched by Wleh and Weeks


Written by Danesius Marteh
danesius.marteh@frontpageafricaonline.com

Sunday, 27 May 2012 08:00


Monrovia — Liberia head coach Joseph Kaetu Smith continued his training session over the weekend at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium (ATS) in Monrovia with some of the invited foreign-based players. Liberia will take on Senegal at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in a 2014 World Cup qualifier on June 2.

Defender Solomon Grimes of Cypriot side Nea Salamina was the latest to arrive on May 24 as we went to press and moved to camp at the Stone Haven hotel in Congo Town.

Grimes joined the Turkish midfield duo of Theo Weeks of Goztepe SL and Tonia Tisdell of Mersin Idman Yurdu SK and defender Jimmy Dixon of Manisaspor.

Others are strikers Sekou Jabateh-Oliseh of Russia’s CSKA Moscow and Patrick ‘Ronaldinho’ Wleh of Malaysia’s Sime Darby FC. Defenders Patrick Nyema Gerhardt of FK Zeljeznicar Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Omega Roberts of FK Sloboda Uzice in Serbia; midfielders

Alseny Keita of US Senart-Moissy in France, Anthony Laffor of South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and strikers Francis ‘Grandpa’ Doe of Malaysia’s Terengganu FA and Dioh Williams of Sweden’s BK Hacken were due in over the weekend. Smith may have set his eyes on which local player(s) to select should there be a vacancy after drastically trimming the bloated list.

Barrack Young Controllers (BYC) goalie Mulbah Urey and Liberia Black Star shot stopper Galley James will challenge UMC Roots’ Nathaniel Sherman, fast becoming the number goalie, for the right to be between the sticks.

Urey and James are hoping to win their first cap at senior level with the latter having played for the under-23 team. Nimba United midfielder Abraham Barshell is the only newcomer having impressed in training. But he must outweigh the experience of midfielders Marcus Macaulay and Martin Karndu of LISCR FC.


George Gebro being tackle by another Lone Star player in training


In the defensive department, Invincible Eleven’s (IE) George Gebro, BYC’s Teah Dennis and LPRC Oilers’ Solomon Wesseh know they have a tall order in adding another international cap to their tally.

Striker Herron Berrian of IE must now concentrate on whether his eight goals in the premier league are enough to earn him a trip to the Teranga Lions. Berrian failed to find the net against Niger in a two-leg preliminary of the Algeria 2013 under-20 championship.

Senegal who are ranked 77 in the world, according to the Fifa Coca-Cola rankings for May, are desperate to make amends for a disastrous Africa Cup of Nations finals where they lost all three games (2-1) to eventual winners Zambia, co-hosts Equatorial Guinea and Libya in Malabo in Group A.

Coach Amara Traore paid the price but whether the resignation of Frenchman Pierre Lechantre can destabilize morale in the camp with the country having qualified for the Olympic Games for the first time ever.

Dakar is an unlikely venue for the visitors who twice lost there in recent time—a 6-1 defeat during the 2006 World Cup qualifier on March 26, 2005 and a 3-1 defeat during the 2010 World Cup qualifier on June 21, 2008.

The team leaves Monrovia on Wednesday with hopes high among Liberians given the 1-0 win over Namibia in a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the ATS on February 29. But will they survive the onslaught of interim coach Joseph Koto, who took the under-23 side to London come the d-day?

Liberia is ranked at 112 and with group members Angola at 78 and Uganda at 93, anyone can easily predict the outcome of the group. But remember that Greece embarrassed pundits when they won Euro 2004 while France and Argentina did likewise with their sloppy performance at the 2002 World Cup.