Football: World Cup qualifier - Seychelles meet Burundi today |07 October 2015
Ravaged by injury, the Seychelles national selection meet Burundi today at Stad Linite in a World Cup qualifier.
Recently appointed coach Ralph Jean-Louis and his two assistants – Bruno Saindini and Don Anacoura – have had a hard time to put together a team to face Burundi who are 133rd in the Fifa (Fédération internationale de Football Association) ranking compared to ours whose ranking has improved to 184th worldwide after the admirable 1-1 draw with Ethiopia a month ago despite playing with 10 men for most of the second half.
The biggest headache for coach Jean-Louis, who is in his second stint with our national team, is in defence as Yannick Manou, who was the skipper for the last match, Benoit Marie, Allen Larue and Alex Nibourette are all injured while Jones Joubert did not turn up though the team’s technical committee did all they could to bring him down from Praslin to join the squad on Monday afternoon. In form Leroy Corallie is also injured.
Coach Jean-Louis said their preparation has been difficult but nonetheless he will field a team who will try to defend the Seychelles colours as his aim is to get past the preliminary round of this qualifier.
“We surely wanted to build on the team’s good performance achieved in their last match and go for a win, but we have a defensive crisis so we will have to re-adjust and see how it goes though offensively we are pleased with the players available. In the end we will have a combative team but they may lack some cohesion,” noted coach Jean-Louis.
In fact coach Jean-Louis called up Gervais Waye-Hive and Adrian Constance on Monday to bolster the squad in a match where the public will be hoping for another good showing. Coach Jean-Louis is encouraging the fans to come and support the team.
“We will be counting on your support to help our team as we go all out for a positive result with the players available,” coach Jean-Louis said.
Burundi hoping for an entertaining match
Meanwhile, Burundi coach Ail Abdel Malek Ahcene has said he respects the Seychelles team and is hoping for an entertaining match to please the fans.
“We are here in search of qualification but it is a match that can go either way as the Seychelles team have some good individual players and we respect them and will study them and show our true level in the second half,” explained the Burundi coach.
Coach Ahcene thinks it is going to be an interesting contest between two teams who he feels will find it tough to qualify for the World Cup.
“We are lucky in a way as we have a slight advantage playing away first as it will give us a chance to assess our opponents and better prepare for the return match but we also want to show the true potential of my team who are a mixture of foreign-based players and home-grown talents,” revealed the Algeria-born German coach who was installed in this post eight months ago.
His team have been victorious in their last three friendly matches.
R. J-L.