Somalia ready for battle: Coach Abdulle sets second round target in Cecafa ties

Monday, November 25, 2013

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Every year, the Somali national team always emerges as one of the worst performers during the regional Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup. The team has always been eliminated from the first round, losing out to their opponents by huge margins.

However, despite their many challenges created by a long drawn civil war that has hit the country in the last 20 years, Somalia has never missed honouring the regional tournament — reputed to be the oldest in the continent.

This year’s contest starts on Wednesday and coach Mohammed Abdulle says he hopes their long record of participation can inspire them towards a better performance this year.

The team was the first to arrive for this year’s event after jetting into the country on Saturday evening and held their first training session at Upper Hill High School on Sunday.

honour calls “Performance in any competition is also judged at two levels — results and discipline.

I’m happy that while we have not been able to always get good results, we remain one of the few countries who take their responsibility to the regional tournament seriously.

“We have never missed participation in the last 50 years and we hope this year, we can have better results in Kenya.

We are looking at perhaps a second round finish,” said the coach. The coach however admitted it will not be an easy time for his side given the opponents they are pooled against.

“We cannot pretend that it will be easy. Our opponents are quite formidable. Tanzania for example beat us 7-0 last year while Burundi hammered us 5-0. Tournament favourites

“Zambia who are also in the same pool with us won the Africa Cup of Nations finals two years ago and are the favourites to win the tournament this year,” he said.

Elsewhere, the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) has lauded efforts made by the Somali government in using the sport as a tool for development and peace.

According to Cecafa secretary General Nicholas Musonye, they are thinking of taking one of the regional youth tournaments to Mogadishu in the near future.

“I’m pleased to note that the government through the Somalia Football Association has brought the youths together in a constructive manner,” Musonye said in his statement.

He added: “I want to encourage you to continue doing the same and forget the past wounds caused by the long-running lawlessness in Somalia. “We are planning to bring one of our youth competitions to Somalia in the nearby future so that we can contribute to the stability of the country.”

The country’s leadership said they will support football in Somalia to enable it play a bigger role in creating peace in the war-torn country. —

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