Today, September 18, 2024, is the commencement for the matchday two fixtures of the West African football Union (WAFU) Under 20 men’s tournament taking place in Paynesville City.
The tournament which is featuring national youth teams across the continent, is starting its second group stage matches this afternoon putting up neighboring clash between the host nation Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The neighboring meeting between the two mano river countries is an anticipation for the tournament followers because it is a fixture that will justify the stand of the winner in the group stage in order to take the best two to the next round of the tournament.
Both teams played their opening matches last Sunday at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports complex where the junior Lone Star started their 2024 WAFU campaign with a narrow win over Guinea Bissau in game one.
The Liberian boys took a lone goal scored by youngster Nuch Zohn in the first half as a stepping stone to conquer their opponents, collecting all three points to get to the top spot of the group four team table after day one.
For Sierra Leone, the opener was not as overwhelming as predicted against Guinea because they shared spoils from a goalless fulltime encounter that evening.
Going into their second matches for the group stage, Liberia comes with an advantage atop and will be in search of extending to the greater margin at the expense of the Sierra Leonians while the opposite will make the case for the Lone Star opponent.
A come back to the tournament is possible for the boys from Freetown to taste the top spot deploying better strategies that they once used during the opening match against Guinea.
In the first match for today, Guinea Conakry, is reported set to entertain with the first defeated team of the tournament, Guinea Bissau, in an early afternoon faceoff.
A group consisting of three countries namely: Mali, Senegal and Gambia, will get into action tomorrow with a single match due to the late pull out of Mauritania from the competition.
The three-team chart of the group is currently led by one of the tournament’s favorites, Senegal, who took a comfortable 2-0 win over Mali in the first match played in the group. A draw in Senegal’s pending meeting with Gambia, will guarantee their immediate qualification to the next stage of the tournament as one of the two top teams in the group. S. Siapha Mulbah writes.
