Gambia face Sierra Leone in Orange Championship

The Gambia National U-20 team will begin their 17th African U-20 Orange Championship, as they looked set to rub shoulders with Sierra Leone in the first leg of the qualifying campaign, at the Independence Stadium in Bakau tomorrow.

The U-20 team under the stewardship of local coach  Lamin Sarr moved into camp at the Manjai Lodge on Monday with 27 players, including six foreign-based stars Saikou Gassama from Spain, Ebrima Camara from Sweden, Pa Sulay Njie and Sainey Mboge from the U.K and Muhammed Touray from Spain.

Sarr, who has been given the U-20 managerial position for the second year in succession, disclosed to our reporter that Omar Jassey (Waterman), who is yet to arrive for the match, is also expected to be part of tomorrow’s tie.

Sarr is set to lead the team to a crucial qualifying fixture at home to Shooting stars of Sierra Leone. However, he is aware of the big task and the importance of the weekend clash, but remains hopeful of berthing a qualification place.

"We are setting our sight firmly on booking a qualification place in the U-20 Championship in Libya in 2011, and we are highly positive of going through, considering the good players at our disposal," Sarr told this reporter in an interview during the camping.

Sarr who endured lots criticisms after failing to lead the U-20 team to the last African U-20 Championship knows the fact that anything less than a qualification berth this time around could prove disastrous.

Sierra Leone who are  expected toarrive in Banjul today after failing Wednesday's appointment, ahead of the match, on the other hand, will be hoping to maintain their perfect start to the campaign, having eliminated Algeria in the preliminary round of the same competition with a 2-1 aggregate last May.

Meanwhile, the ticket prize for the match has been revealed by the FA. They are as follow: VIP stands at D300, Cover and Uncovered Pavilions are pegged at D50 and D25, respectively.