Gambia rise to the occasion beating South Sudan but….
Number 9 Assan Ceesay with a brace over South Sudan
The sun shone on Gambia as they returned to winning ways for the first time in El Jadida, Morocco in their international break training camp ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations. They ground down minnows South Sudan 2-1 to wrap up a three-game series which saw them registering defeats against Sierra Leone at the weekend and to a Moroccan U23 side earlier.
A dissatisfied Head Coach Tom Saintfiet opted for goalkeeper Shiekh Sibi, former Swansea City winger Mo Barrow and Italy-based former Hawks midfielder Yusupha Bobb for their first tastes from the start.
Highly touted former U-20 captain, and AC Horsens center-back James Gomez also started alongside experienced Sampdoria man Omar Colley in an attempt to shore up a leaky looking defense of late.
But just as in the weekend defeat to Sierra Leone it was leading front man Assan Ceesay who stepped up to put the scorpions well ahead, first with a 23rd minute penalty before adding another one from the spot minutes from halftime to grab a foothold in the game.
South Sudan could hardly lay a glove on the Gambians and the score line remained comfortably 2-0 until Tom Saintfiet decided to freshen things up in the second half with the introduction of previous starters Lamin Jallow and Bubacarr Trawally.
However, it was South Sudan’s time to get in on the act and make matters a little interesting towards the end following an awful moment by the Gambian Keeper Shiekh Sibi allowing an easy ball from a loose free kick to fall on the feet of South Sudanese player Gumnok who said thank you and slotted home to make it 2-1. There was no late drama and the scorpions got there in the end.
Perhaps a morale restoring win on the night but overall, far from the great momentum the squad had created and largely rode on during qualifiers, conceding a whopping 10 goals from the three matches in Morocco. A potential crisis that will certainly occupy Tom Saintfiet’s workload in the next coming weeks ahead of November’s international window, the final chance he may have to stabilize his leaky backline, goalkeeping headache, the team’s creativity and the lack of urgency issues he decried in the past week.