By Hassan Osman Kargbo
Following their intensive preparations at the newly constructed artificial turf at the SLFA Academic in Kingtom, Freetown, the Sierra Leone National U-20 team commonly known as the Shooting Stars has drawn with the Liberia National U-20 team back-to-back in their encounter.
The first encounter took place on Sunday 18th February 2024, at the Samuel K. Doe Stadium in Monrovia which ended in a goalless draw, whilst the second draw which ended 1-1 with the Liberia National U-20 took place on Tuesday 20th February 2024 at the Samuel K. Doe Stadium in Liberia.
After their first draw with the Liberia National U-20 sides, the Sierra Leone’s National Under-20 team were in full geared to grabbing their First win against Liberia U-20 in match day 2 of the Zonal friendly tournament, but unfortunately it ended into another draw for the Shooting Stars.
The first opening match started with full optimism from the both sides after their intensive preparations. The first half ended with score lines of 0-0 after a lot of chances created but there were nothing to show for it.
Both teams have shown good defensive tactics and discipline, preventing their opponents from scoring. The match has been intense and competitive, with both sides creating scoring opportunities in the first half. Shooting Stars came close in the first half to get the opener but they were denied by the Liberia goal man several times.
The second half came and it was an exciting one as both teams shaping their attacks to get a win, but they failed to break the deadlock to secure a victory.
The match was full with high intensity from either side lacks the merit of goals at the end of the 90 minutes of played. Shooting Stars made series of attempts but their best was not enough as their Liberian U-20 counterpart manifested strong defensive prowess.
However, Diamond Stars Football club golden-Boy and talisman Mohamed Fofanah Alias Capay won the Man of the Match Award for Sierra Leone U20 in Liberia in the first match. His great determination coupled with excellent passing skills throughout the 90mins and his masterpiece display in the middle helped him to secure that award all but important award in his career.
Although the match ended without any goals, the head coach of Shooting Stars Mohamed Lamin Kamara expressed strong optimism as the squad will play Lone Stars of Liberia again. He believes that the team would capitalize on scoring opportunities in those remaining matches. “We will work on goal scoring chances and set pieces during the next trainings,” the Gaffer noted.
However, the second encounter with the Liberia National U-20 sides also ended in a one-one draw which fans of Sierra Leone football have been sceptical as to what is actually happening in our country’s football activities.
The second match was full of optimism that saw Shooting Stars had a penalty that was converted by Samuel Grandi in the 12 minutes of played, and the Liberia’s also had their own penalty in the 54 minutes that was scored by Emmanuel Sieh Jr and it ended 1-1 after the final whistle was blown.
It was a tough fight for the boys in both matches. They played for all six points but they got only two. However, not a bad result and most importantly the boys displayed very encouraging performance in the both matches.
