Scorpions captain Mustapha Jarju and company would not commit themselves to promising the nation a first Nation’s Cup appearance in 2015, but agreed that a win in tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier would go a long way to inspire confidence.
The match, kicking off at 4:30 pm, is being touted to be the beginning of the new era, with the new football leaders declaring that they want no less than a win to start pulling Gambian football from the doldrums.
‘’We shall do the hardwork on the pitch and hope that we shall be lucky to translate our performances to goals and concrete results,’’ Coach Peter Bonu Johnson said at a pre-match technical press briefing Thursday.
He had earlier called a 23 man squad of foreign- and home-based players for the showdown that marks the end of the road for the qualifiers for Brazil 2014, for both Tanzania and The Gambia.
‘‘But where the road ends for Brazil, work must start for Morocco 2015,’’ GFF officials had said, adding that tomorrow’s match is important for the future survival of this dream.
Meanwhile, the Tanzanian team arrived yesterday after a marathon road and sea journey from Dakar, and are camped at Seaview Hotel.
The East Africans beat The Gambia 2-1 in Dar es-Salam in the first meeting between the two in the group, and are hoping to finish strongly to improve their FIFA ranking.
As we went to press yesterday, the match commissioner from Liberia, G Andy Quamie, had arrived in Banjul, while match officials from Rwanda were expected last night.
