PLAYING FOR ALL THE MARBLES

June 17th, 2009 | By: sscouser | 6 Comments »

This is it. It’s all or nothing for Malawi. A win is a must this Sunday when they play against Guinea in Conakry for the joint 2010 World Cup and Africa Nations Cup qualifier. A loss will be disastrous. Not only will it make it harder for them to qualify but it will also have an effect on future sourcing of funds.

If the present is a good predictor of the future then the future doesn’t look good for Malawi if they lose this Sunday. Only 18 players are on their way to Guinea because of lack of funds. Had they won against Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso I am sure the Malawi Government could have afforded to cough all the funds requested by FAM for The Flames trip to Guinea. FAM wanted The Flames to spend about 7 days in Guinea so they could acclimatize. However, due to money problems, The Flames only left Malawi yesterday and will be in Conakry, Guinea later tomorrow.

Having an 18 player squad or arriving in Guinea 3 days before the game shouldn’t be an excuse. Guinea too have problems of their own. Guinea have a two weeks old coach in the name of Aboubacar Sidiki Camara, more commonly known as Titi Camara. He replaced Robert Nouzaret who “resigned” following Guinea’s 2-1 defeat to Côte d’Ivoire at home in Conakry. Camara was once a highly-touted prospect, spending time with Lens (1996–98), Olympique Marseille (1998–99), Liverpool (1999–2000), and West Ham United (2000–03). He signed for the latter team on December 21, 2000, for £1.5 million. He was a stalwart of the Guinea side from the early 1990s until the early 2000s. He is regarded as a key protagonist in Guinea’s return to respectability in African football and played for his country at the 2004 African Nations Cup. However, he doesn’t have any coaching experience. Camara will likely have the respect of his new charges but is he a tactician?

If coaches can win you games, then Malawi should win this Sunday. No need to throw in the towel yet. If they win this Sunday the 1st position will still be up for grabs. What if Malawi win all their remaining games? Dreaming in High Def?

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Comments

By Alex | June 17th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

The Flames must win in Guinea. There is no guarantee that they will beat Guinea in Malawi. Guinea already have a 3 goals cushion over Malawi so a draw will not help.

By Ajika | June 17th, 2009 at 8:24 pm

We’ll beat you. You shudn’t fool urselves that we r equals because we also lost 2 games. We fired our coach though Ivory Coast beat us just 2-1. That should tell you something about our expectations.

By TK | June 17th, 2009 at 9:44 pm

AJIKA

The stats speak for themselves that we are equals in this competetion.Until you have a superior aggregate that will advance your team to ACN then hush MR!You talk about Ivory Coast beating you by “only” 2-1,you really havent done your home work MR.Championships have been won by a small margin.Remember the just ended UEFA,Barcelona qualified because they managed to score just “one” goal away.Please consider the fact that your 2-1 loss was at home.God knows what will happen when you play Ivory Coast in their back yard.Remember DRC,they counted us out look what happened.He who dances last,dances the longest!

By Ajika | June 18th, 2009 at 7:40 am

Burkina Faso beat us 4-2 at their own backyard and they beat u 1-0 at ur own backyard. They will beat you by at least 3 goals at their own backyard.
Which stats are you talking about? Can’t u see that we scored 3 goals and u scored 0. We conceded 3 and you conceded 6. There is no DRC and Djibouti in this Group. If you start digging th epast then we’ll also dig the past. We made it to the 2004 ACN. Did u?

By sscouser | June 18th, 2009 at 8:59 am

Ajika, if my memory serves me well, in Feb, 2008 Ivory Coast cruised into the semi-finals of the African Nations Cup with a 5-0 demolition of Guinea in Sekondi. If the past is a good predictor of the future then……..

Anyway, Ivory Coast outclassed a young Guinea side who were not entirely disgraced.

Posted from United States

By shane | June 18th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

The 5-0 result was slightly misleading to be fair to Guinea. Feindouno was suspended and both Balde and Kalabane missed the game injured. Still a humiliating result but the talisman and both first choice centerbacks missed the match.
Hopefully the match over the weekend will see a good performance from at least one of the teams. Obviously I would prefer it to be Guinea. I will have a post up for both Guinea and Benin blogs friday night.

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