By S. Siapha Mulbah
The Head Coach of the Liberian Senior National Football team, Ansumana Keita, has termed the nation’s final qualifier match against Morocco in the African Cup of Nations as a preparation program for the World Cup Qualifiers in November.
Though the team lost its chance of going to the 2023 AFCON against South Africa in March of this year, the Lone Star will have to finalize events in the group stage against the Atlas Lions of Morocco on Saturday September 9, 2023, in Rabat.
In a pre-departure press conference yesterday, Coach Keita said the team is going to Morocco to play the match and collect a result of any kind.
According to him, the Lone Star will use the fixture to evaluate players’ performances, ahead of the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers against Equatorial Guinea and Malawi.
He explained that the team has not been able to host preparation matches in the past to know the proper situations regarding players, which is the major problem concerning the team’s performance in the football environment.
“The match against Morocco is important because we have World Cup Qualifiers in November. We are going to the match to get a result that football expects and prepare for the world stages, that is why we as a country should take it to be very important,” Keita said.
He explained that the players selected for the task are going to represent the country in building a more reliable and confident team to go to the World Cup Qualifiers, and subsequently the World Cup in America.
The Coach then justified his selection of players as the ones that best fit in his plans, as others were omitted from the squad because of some issues that will not be discussed in the public.
“The National Team is for everyone in the country, so the players are selected based on present form and performance at their clubs and other duties. We will not take five million persons to represent one team at a time, so those that are part of the current selection are on the task and others could join later,” he asserted.
According to him, some previously named players have reportedly picked up injuries that drew the technical team’s attention of making replacements, ahead of the Saturday match.
He named Kpah Sherman and Mohammed Kamara as players that were considered for a call up to the national team, but later got injured while on club duty for their respective teams.
According to Keita, Sylvanus Nimely, Marcus Marcullay, and Justin Salman, were also considered as options, but visa problems and other issues impeded their travels.
The Lone Star delegation is expected to depart Liberia for Morocco today to honor the AFCON qualifier, as well as an international friendly against Ghana in Accra on September 12, 2023.
