WILL FRIENDLY MATCHES ON NOVEMBER 19 MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Let’s start with some Friendly match advantages:

They help the manager (coach) to evaluate his (her?) team formation and help players to
gain full fitness. A player who has been out of play for a long time will almost never get a
decent performance if he is suddenly thrown in an important match.

They help with team cohesion. You can’t get team cohesion without playing games.
Please note that you can only get team cohesion if you field the same players. Not
including at least 8 players of your regular starting line up will not help matters.

Now the flip side:

Friendly matches are a reason for unexpected injuries. Given the highly competitive nature of professional sports (and the frequent lack of disciplinary action by officiating bodies for rules or sportsmanship infractions during friendly matches), “friendly” matches are not always the exemplars of good will and fair play that the term might suggest. Also, Players can be booked in international friendly matches, and can be suspended from future international matches based on red cards or accumulated yellows in a specified period.

Friendly match results may be misleading. The other team may not field its regular first team. For example, In 2002 The Egyptian football community was in chaos after the news broke that the Olympic team was conned in their friendly matches with Romania. Their Olympic team returned “victorious” from a six-day event in Romania, telling the press they were satisfied with their play, especially given that their two games were against the Romanian Olympic team; known to be “strong”. The Olympic team’s first match was broadcast live to the world: Egypt versus Romania. Egypt lost the first game in a close 1- 2 encounter, but gathered its composure to take the second 2-0 — a match that was broadcast several hours after it was played. The team was welcomed back warmly, and celebrated accordingly. The partying, however, stopped short. In a stunning news wire report, the news about the Romanian team’s real identity was broken. The Egyptian team, had been bluffed: playing against a second-division team which was wearing the trademark Olympic jerseys. The news opened fire in all directions, and the Egyptian football community was literally thrown into chaos. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/597/sp2.htm

Most teams will have “warms ups” between now and March 2009. Malawi Flames are yet to arrange any warm-up fixtures to prepare the team for football’s most celebrated competition, World Cup. Yes, World Cup. Don’t rule out the Flames. Yes they can. Most teams will not feature their strong sides during these warm-ups. So, the Flames don’t have to worry. There is still time. After all, the most meaningful friendly matches will be the ones played a week or two before the start of the 3rd round in March 2009 because most teams then will feature their starting 11. Friendly matches can be likened to studying for a test. We are in November and you have a test March next year, would you start studying “hard” right now? Flames, only worry about FIFA Rankings if you want to i.e. if they mean a lot to you.

All Flames opponents in the joint World Cup and African Cup final qualifying round will play in the West African Football Union (WAFU) tournament in Nigeria, from November 28 to December 7. The 16 countries that will take part are Benin, Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Côte d’Ivoire are in group C with Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Mauritania. Please note that Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast are also in the same group (Third Round WC/ACN). Will this be a predictor? Guinea are in Group B with Senegal, Ghana and Gambia.

In other news, Gateway Television (GTV) will bankroll this year’s Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup with a kitty of $500 000 (about Frw276 millions).The money will foot air tickets, accommodation, prizes and other logistics for all participating countries.

Eleven countries including defending champions Sudan, Kenya, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and hosts Uganda are expected to take part in the regional football show piece to take place from December 31, 2008 to January 13, 2009.

Here are some November 19 confirmed friendly matches:

Mali vs. Algeria
Ivory Coast vs. Israel
Togo vs. Rwanda
Egypt vs. Benin
Tunisia vs. Ghana
Brazil vs. Portugal
Argentina vs. Scotland

Who else?