2015 Caf Beach Soccer Championship - Seychelles improve despite loss to Ivory Coast |16 April 2015

Seychelles showed vast improvement and spirit as they came up against a strong Ivory Coast side in their second match of the Caf Beach Soccer Championships currently underway at our National Beach Soccer Stadium, Roche Caïman.

Having played in the Beach Soccer World Cup, Ivory Coast are a vastly experienced and strong side and must have come into yesterday's group A match anticipating an easy match against Seychelles.

But it was not the case however as the Seychellois boys of Brazilian coach Bruno Mendes showed they are more than capable of hanging with the big boys as they kept their opponents at bay in the first two thirds of the match.

The contest really came alive in the final third as both teams looked to grab all three points. It was the Ivorians who did the damage first as Assouan Kablan finally found a way past Seychelles’ goalkeeper Damien Adela to put the score at 1-0.

It was soon 2-0 though as Ivory Coast continued to push forward. This time the goal came after a lapse in concentration from Seychelles as they allowed goalkeeper Brou Kouadio to score with a long range effort.

Seychelles were given a lifeline late on though as Jean-Paul Marguerite found the net with under a minute left to play to bring the score to 2-1.
 
A late push for an equaliser was what coach Bruno wanted and he got exactly that as the crowd also got behind Seychelles in encouragement. Despite trying, the closest Seychelles got to equalising was through a Marguerite free kick which was well saved by the Ivorian goalkeeper as his team celebrated a win.
The victory means that Ivory Coast are now on 4 points after two games in as many matches, which put them into the semifinals.

The distribution of points in beach soccer is different compared to regular football. Here, as no draws are allowed, teams who win in regular time get the maximum 3 points. A win after extra time earn the teams two points, while victory after a penalty shootout is worth a single point.

Hence, as Ivory Coast won their first game against Egypt on penalties they got one point which has been added to the three collected in their victory in normal time against Seychelles to bring their tally to four.

Seychelles national team manager Ralph Rose said after the match he was very proud of how the team played and that they perhaps even deserved a better result.

"It was big improvement compared to yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) heavy defeat. Egypt have also lost two matches just like us and tomorrow (today) we will be all out to get the win and finish above them in our group," manager Rose added.

In another group A match played earlier, the Super Sand Eagles of Nigeria also booked their semifinal place with a 4-1 win over Egypt with striker Emeka Ogbonna scoring twice.

Two-time champions Nigeria, who had hammered Seychelles 10-1 in their first match on Tuesday, have a maximum 6 points from two games.
They will face the Ivorians today in a game that could decide the group winners.

Meanwhile in group B, Morocco bounced back from a 7-3 thrashing at the hands of record holders Senegal to beat the Black Sharks of Ghana 5-3 to collect their first three points of the tournament.

Ghana had lost their first match on Tuesday on a 4-9 score against Madagascar, who only last weekend became the champions of the inaugural Cosafa (Council of Southern African Football Associations) beach soccer tournament played here.

Ghana are without a point in two games and play Senegal today in their third group B game.
As for three-time champions Senegal, they possibly did not know they had a hard nut to crack in the form of Madagascar yesterday as they lost their match to stay on three points.

The Malagasies continued their impressive run by taming the Senegalese with a 3-2 win in extra-time to bring their points tally to five.
Today Madagascar will play Morocco.

The finalists will represent Africa at the 2015 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup from July 9-19 in Portugal.

S. N.