Commentary
By Anthony Solomon, USA.
A selected team of talented Sierra Leonean soccer players from different states in the United State are representing Sierra Leone in the biggest International Soccer League in Maryland called the Diaspora World Cup.
There are 20 teams that represent 20 countries in the this world cup tournament, Sierra Leone are in a group with (Trinidad & Tobago, Liberia, Ghana, United State, England, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey and Tanzania).
Only four teams will qualify out of ten teams and Sierra Leone have played four games they have won two games, tied on one and lost one 2-1-1. They won their first game against Tanzania by 6-1, lost to Trinidad 2-1, won against defending champions England 2-0, and tied with Liberia 1-1. I have selected my players from different states to represent our flag and country Sierra Leone in this league; Sierra Leonean players are the best talented foreign players in the East Coast and most of our players play for different foreign clubs and most of these foreign clubs from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Salvador, Mexico and other countries pay our players to play for their club teams.
I’m happy to get all these players together to represent our country in this league and my team is one of the most talked about currently in this tournament. Everybody is talking about us, asking about us. The way my boys are playing is amazing to watch as we are playing as a good team with ball possession and attacking. The fans love to watch my team play. When we took on the defending champions, England, everybody thought they were going to beat us before the game started because most of the fans and even the England players didn’t know about us or know about our country, Sierra Leone, but after the first half of the game the most frequent question was where are you guys from, what county are you guys from? The fans and even the England players where curious to know about us because of the way we were playing.
" The team was praised a lot, the fans and the England players have never seen an African team playing in full possession of the ball and attacking like that," said Coach Abdulai Bah, alias Kaloga. Most of the young players are doing extremely well alongside the senior players; most of them are former F.C. Johansen youth team players (Pele, Kolozay, Emmanuel, Bako, and Kelly Marrah) and other players are from different high schools and colleges.
Pele is one of the best players in the league with five goals in four games, Kelly
Marrah has two goals to his name and the rest of the other boys are doing extremely well on the team.
Our next game will be against Turkey on June 1, 2014 and we are looking for a brilliant win against the Turkish.
Visit the Diaspora World Cup website and the Sierra Rangers Facebook page for further information.
Photo: Some members of the Sierra Leone soccer team in the USA that beat England recently.
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