October 13, 2020 (232News)
FREETOWN – The senior national male Football teams Leone Stars have lost two goals to one to the Mauritanian senior national team in a friendly match on Friday. The match took place in Nouakchott the capital city of Mauritania. The host team opened the goal scores in 19th minutes 42 seconds of the first half in the match. Leone Stars equalized in the 30th minute after by Hassan Milla Koroma a Real Mack FC player who is on loan at FC Kallon. The host team capitalized on the defensive blunder by Leone Stars in the second half to score the winning goal in the 77 minutes. The winning goal came after the captain Umaru Bangura a central defender was substituted due to slight injury. The Leone Stars team was dominated with home based players with only six foreign based players. According to source some of the invited foreign based players failed to turn up for the friendly matches due to the COVID19 regulation of 14 days quarantine for any player that travels out to another country. Notwithstanding, the technical team has the assurance that the remaining invited foreign based players will turn up for the two Nations Cup qualifying matches against Nigeria. After the first friendly match in Mauritania, the FA President Isha Johansen wrote an open letter to the team where she joined the nation in their continued support and encouragement to them. She went on that the expectation of all will always be high simply because they believe in their capabilities. However she said the reality is that they need to work harder which she have no doubt the technical team will make sure it happen. She referred to their performance as good effort but say they know the team can and will do better in upcoming matches as they proceed for another friendly match against Niger tomorrow. Apart from the FA President, most fans are convinced that Leone Stars can do better in the future matches if the coaches put the right mechanism in place. In tomorrow’s friendly the technical team will be using only two foreign based players, Umaru Bangura and Alhassan Koroma as already four of the foreign based players have return to their various clubs. Leone Stars will take on the group leaders Super Eagles of Nigeria in the Nations Cup qualifying group the home and away in November this year.
