The Scorpions have returned home following the end of Gambia’s campaign in the WC Qatar 2022 Preliminary Qualifiers where Coach Tom Sainfiet and his charges went short of making it to the Group Stages Proper after loosing to Angola 2-1 in the away leg (3-1 aggregate) and thus ending the Gambia’s pursuit of making it to the Qualifiers proper.
Upon the team’s return at home over the weekend, GFF 2nd Vice President and Head of Competitions Ebou Faye has been adding his voice to the Scorpions’ campaign successes and shortfalls. In a postmortem he made through the Federation website www.gambiaff.org the former GPA, Real De Banjul and Young Africans Coach cum Football administrator said it was generally a disappointing campaign for the country. He said despite the good performance played in both legs, the results were not encouraging. “I think everybody is disappointed with the results because the national team created a strong believe to everyone that they (Scorpions) can do it in the Qualifiers”. He pointed out the team’s fantastic work at the last training camp in Morocco where they beat Guinea and hosts Morocco in friendly international matches meant to hone the skills of the Scorpions ahead of the preliminary Qualifiers.
Faye said football fans who raised their voices on the Scorpions’ performances have the team at heart and care for them “because everybody was confident that we will get something from this but the results were totally disappointing and that is why you have all this noise coming from all corners from the supporters. This is because they care for the National Team that is why they are expressing their frustrations which should be understood by everyone. It is our team and it belong to all of us”, he lamented.
The former player and renowned technician cum football administrator said the Scorpions lost their campaign when they missed to score and win at home. “It all went wrong at home. The GFF has prepared the team well in terms of logistics and anything needed to make them ready for the campaign, but I think tactically the choice of players in midfield was the problem”. According to Faye, the team did not perform well in the first half while the second half changes was much better to the delight of the fans. “One must win all home matches to be able to qualify to a tournament and it is time that we make the Independence Stadium a fortress for any visiting team”, he emphasized.
Reacting to what is ahead for the National team in the Afcon Qualifiers where the Gambia is paired with Djibouti, Faye noted that GFF will never relent on its core mandate to prepare the national team again for another task. “Preparations are already underway because we are in touch with the relevant partners and stakeholders about that game. The administrators have started working out the route because we are playing away in the first leg while the Finance Department have also worked on the budget for the match with the Ministry of Youth and Sports”. He said the Gambia will go all out and cannot afford to miss out a spot at the Afcon against Djibouti.
“If you look at the WC opponents (Angola) compared to our Afcon opponents (Djibouti) is different. Angola is a very strong team in African football and they are higher and richer than the Gambia in football. It is just that we did not perform to expectation that why the frustration is high”. 2nd VP Faye nonetheless assures Gambians of the Federation’s relentless strives to putting up a good campaign strategy where all needed logistics would be provided for the team all meant for a successful campaign against Djibouti. He said the GFF is aware of the stakeholders frustration after failing to make it to the World Cup Qualifiers proper, ” but the next step is for the coach to select his players and start his preparations for the match and we need to look at where to camp ahead of the game because we are to play away in Djibouti in the first leg and will have to put into consideration a camping site where we can have all the players converged for ease of trekking together”.
He finally called on fans to continue supporting the national team while putting more faith on the team hence “it belongs to all of us”. He said the team however must also reciprocate by putting up more efforts and performance to make the fans smile especially at home.
Ebou Faye was a player with distinguished football career. Amongst the accolades the Banjulian shelved includes his playing and managerial work with former Nawettan side Falcons FC before renaming it to League Champions GPA where he played for the side in the 3rd Div Qualifiers promoting the team to League Div Two. Faye had spells with Hawks Football Club upon his return from overseas studies in the UK before he took over Real De Banjul FC as Head Coach where he gained success with the capital based club.