Young Scorpions will be hoping to better their best performance at the African U-20 Cup of Nations when they face off with Tunisia in the third and fourth place playoffs on Friday.
Having narrowly lost 1-0 to Ghana, courtesy of Precious Boah’s 39th minute free-kick, the Gambians will equal their best ever finish in this competition with victory over Tunisia in the playoffs. They were third place finishers at the 2007 edition in Congo Brazzaville.
Speaking at a post-match press conference following today’s 1-0 defeat to the Black Satellites, Coach Matarr M’Boge was contended with the overall performance of his team in the tournament, noting that the platform has created an opportunity to show to the continent and the world that The Gambia has talent.
A place in the semifinals would’ve secured Gambia’s appearance at the 2021 U-20 World Cup in Indonesia but following the cancellation of that tournament by FIFA due to the Covid19 pandemic, this current group have been deprived of the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the 2007 generation and showcase their talent at the global stage.
Describing the decision to cancel the competition as a shame, M’Boge is still hoping that the world football governing body would reconsider their decision to ensure that Africa’s four semifinalists are given the opportunity to showcase what they are made of, an opinion he shared with his Ghanaian counterpart Abdul Karim Zito.
“Just sad that the pandemic has forced FIFA to cancel the World Cup. I just can only appeal that maybe FIFA or the organizers can reconsider because if it was still the case, we would be going to the World Cup and for a country like ourselves, our players would love to showcase at that stage. We wanted to get to the finals too, we wanted to represent our country at that stage but hats off to Ghana,” M’Boge lamented.
“We wanted to increase the level of play we did in the first encounter but they came up with a game plan to contain us. Honestly, a team that kept winning and all the successes we’ve had to get here, beating big teams, other teams start to notice you and they start to change their game plan because of the damage we’ve caused them. So, I’m proud of my boys because if we didn’t beat Ghana in the first place we wouldn’t be here.”
Despite the win, Ghana Coach Zito recognized the Young Scorpions as one of the best teams in the tournament. “Look, let’s be honest Gambia is one of the best teams in this competition. We played Cameroon until extra time and eventually won but I was not tired in all the games we played than when playing against The Gambia,” he added.
