By S. Siapha Mulbah
The Head coach of the Liberia Women National Team, Madam Selam Kebede, sees the building of a dream team for Liberia, rather than hoping to make a victorious come back in the second leg of the Women African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Cape Verde today, September 26, 2023.
Liberia lost last Friday to their Cape Verdean counterparts by three goals to zero, in the first leg in Praia. The result raised questions as to whether the Liberian side is prepared to make a comeback in their home fixture at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports complex in Paynesville.
Addressing a pre-match news conference, Coach Kebede disclosed that the return match is neither a case for win nor result for her girls, but a process of building a team that could fully represent the country in the nearest future and in subsequent competitions.
According to the Ethiopian gaffer, the current set of players, collected in recent times to make the team for the AFCON Qualifier, needs more preparation, training, and other processes that will make them fit for the task they are called to.
She said that the team from Cape Verde seems to have more opportunities, in terms of quality players and capacity that gave them the edge over the Lone Star in the first leg.
“This is new to us and we are building a future team for Liberia. The result right now is not really a matter but we are going to fix this team, train the players and make them ready for the feature,” she explained.
She further disclosed that the management of the Lone Star Women’s National Team is open in working with all Liberian female players, both home and abroad. As part of said effort, she said the technical team reached out to two top performing Liberian players based in the United States of America, namely, Agatha Nimene and Angeline Kieh.
The duo played for Blanco and Earth Angels in the Liberian league, before traveling to the US to play for Campbellsville University.
According to coach Kebede, the two players did not make it to the team to play against Cape Verde because of some undisclosed technical situations between the two players and the Liberia Football Association.
