The chairman of the Normalization Committee, Alhagie OB Conateh, has pointed out that Scorpions’ Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Morocco was not a bad start to the Group C qualifying rounds of the 2014 World Cup.
Although the Scorpions could have won the game, the conceding of a late goal has turndown their expectations, he reasoned.
“We should not have conceded that goal and taking a look at Morocco with their calibre of players playing in the top leagues, the draw is a very good result after balancing the game,” Conateh said, adding that since it is football there is always hope the Gambia can make it.
“Who would have thought that we would have this result against Morocco - and I believe we would have won,” he said. “Ivory Coast will be very happy for topping the group after their 2-0 win over Tanzania also on Saturday.”
The team as part of the qualifiers will leave Banjul on Tuesday for Tanzania for their next World Cup game scheduled for June 9.
They will play Algeria for the 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifiers with Algeria leading The Gambia with a 2-1 score.
The Africa Cup of Nations, according to Caf, has been switched to odd-number years starting in 2013 to avoid every second tournament being played the same year as the World Cup and this has forced the organisers to condense the elimination process.
Instead of the traditional four-team mini-leagues, there will be two rounds of home-and-away ties with the 16 teams who made the 2012 Cup of Nations receiving first round byes.
