By Samm Etuk
The shy Gambian coach Tariq Saigy, has been sulking for failing to give Africa good representation after their splendid showing at the continental version of the championship which they emerged winners. Today, he says his team will go all out to defend the continent’s soccer pride.
In a heartwarming interview with africansportsdigest.com the coach emphasized that his players never surrender their rhythm attributing the poor goals form to inadequate exposure.
“We really wanted to put up a good showing in this competition, but were just unfortunate in the previous games. The Calabar fans were all out to back us, but the goals did not come as expected. We’ve improved in every match and want to win this last group tie hoping we can still make it to the next round,” said Saigy.
Although, he sounded so confident and his players are upbeat of an excellence outing in today’s match against Colombia, the zone’s most loved side, football experts said that the team must prop up its attack if they really want to go somewhere.
Coach Ntiero Effiom, a former manager of the Nigerian national female team, the Super Falcons said that the fans had expected so much from the Gambians as African champions pointing out that they are a technically sound team but just lack the cutting edge in the attack.
“You’ve seen the way fans have been supporting them. We’re Africans, although Clalabar fans love good football, they also want more African teams to advance to the second round. Gambia will need to improve on their striking power to succeed,” he emphasized.