The Women’s National Team of Liberia left the country early on Tuesday morning for Cape Verde, to compete in the first leg of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2024 Qualifying match.
The delegation is headed by Executive Committee member, Tickly D. Monkoney, Jr.
The female Lone Star will take on Cape Verde on Friday, September 22, in Praia, with the return leg taking place on Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville City.
Following weeks of training camp and a scouting process, Coach Selam Kebede named a 22-player squad list for the away games.
Friday’s game will be her first major game since taking on the post as head coach in July of this year.
“We started by organizing travel and games in different counties that had never participated in the national team selection before. After that, we went to the community competition, then to the lower leagues, and finally to the higher leagues,” the women’s Coach reported.
She further said, “In this, we were able to see more than 41 teams and more than 900 players in a short time. In the end, we got into regular training with twenty 28 players, in preparation for our game against Cape Verde.”
She added, “Most of them are young, and I believe that the beginning of everything is discipline, and that’s where we started focusing our work. Our first task was to rebuild the team, and gradually we are trying to give the team its own identity, and we are working on it.”
Coach Salem believes that having Pauline Agbotsu and Mimi Eiden on her team will be beneficial for the competition. Agbotsu recently played for Okzhetpes against Juventus in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Friday’s meeting will be the second between both teams. In their first-ever encounter, which took place in the third-place playoffs of the 2020 West African Football Union zone ‘A’ women’s tournament in Sierra Leone, Liberia won 1-0.
