10th Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) Mauritius July 19-28 |27 July 2019

Football

Seychelles miss out on bronze medal after losing to Mayotte

Seychelles’ football selection will leave the 10th Indian Ocean Islands Games empty-handed after losing the third-place playoff match against Mayotte yesterday at the Auguste Vollaire Stadium in Flacq, thus missing out on the bronze medal.

For the competition, Seychelles were drawn in group A along with hosts Mauritius and Madagascar where the local selection under the guidance of coach Gavin Jeanne managed two draws – 1-1 against Mauritius and 0-0 against Madagascar – in their group matches, before being thrashed 4-0 by Reunion in the semifinal.

In the third-place playoff match yesterday, Seychelles faced Mayotte and once again it was a disappointing result as our national selection lost 1-3, giving Mayotte the bronze medal.

Mayotte opened the score in the 21st minute through Habib Maoulida, before Darell Damoo equalised for Seychelles in the 34th minute.

Ben Yahayam then restored Mayotte’s lead in the 73rd making it 2-1, before scoring his second goal of the match in the 83rd to give Mayotte a 3-1 victory and bronze medal of the 10th IOIG football competition.

Reaction of coach Gavin Jeanne: “We wanted to win the match, but we could not. We gave everything in the first half, but we did not score. In the second half we were facing the wind which made it difficult to get out of the high press of the Mayotte team, especially to get out of our own half. We are a bit disappointed, but we tried everything. We have been eliminated in the semifinal, which means we missed the final, therefore we missed out on the competition. After the defeat against Reunion, it was very difficult to bring back the players together as they were psychologically not fit. We had a lot of chances, but we did not score and Mayotte capitalised on our mistakes and used all their chances.”

Team Seychelles: Alvin Michel (goalkeeper), Yannick Manoo, Jones Joubert, Benoit Marie (captain), Roddy Melanie (Darrel Damoo 11th), Jude Nancy, Colin Esther (Brian Dorby 78th), Colin Bibi, Sanky Vidot, Rashim Padayachy (Randy Emile 53rd), Elijah Tamboo.

Roland Duval in Mauritius