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Gambia Armed Forces Held to Goalless Draw by Senegal

Apr 8, 2009, 7:33 AM

The Gambia Armed Forces Football Team were on Monday forced to a goalless draw by neighbours Senegal in their second outing in the ongoing West Africa Liaison Office -WALO- championship underway in the Guinean capital Conakry.

The match which reflected the usual Senegambian derby was described by all, as the must entertaining and disputed game since the kick-off of the 8 nation's tournament here in Conakry.

The Senegalese Teranga Soldiers came in the game with an aggressive approach aiming at denying the Gambia Armed Forces team their well planned system of play which they demonstrated against Nigeria in their opening game.

They partly succeeded to contain the Armed Forces machine when they applied hard tackles on Gambia key players like Landing Darboe alias Del Piero,  hit man Buba Sama and the unfatiguable  Modou Gaye.

But Coach Alhagie Sy and bagged technicians applied another method to over come the Senegalese by using Modou Sarr alias Mula and Modou Lamin Colley to do the offensive work to them.

The option worked perfectly as they forced the Senegalese Soldiers to opt for the sharing of the points by putting more effort on their defensive line.

Buba Sama, Del Piero and Modou Gaye could have put The Gambia ahead if they were more relaxed in front of the Senegalese goalie.

The second half was a different ball game as the Armed Forces players applied to the letter the worlds from the dressing room as they over played the Senegalese side.

It was a one team affair as Armed forces dominated the entire game missing chances over chances, forcing the Senegalese coach Gaspard Gomis to opt for a lone striker while the others were turned to defenders.

Despite the numerous chances the game ended 0-0 at the disappointment of the Gambian bench and the numerous well wishers specially the English speaking counties like Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and some Guineans.

Meanwhile the Armed Forces will line up for their last group game on Wednesday against Group leaders Mali.

A draw will see both Mali and Gambia advanced to the semi final on Friday.

It could be recalled that the trophy is been named after the Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure alias ATT.

Here is the summary of the tournament so far

 

Group A

Guinea  5-0 Sierra Leone

Burkina 2-0 Ghana

Guinea 0-1 Ghana

Burkina 4-0 Sierra Leone

 

Group B

Gambia 3-2 Nigeria

Mali 4-0 Senegal

Nigeria 0-2 Mali

Gambia 0-0 Senegal