Senegal 2015 Qualifier: replacing Malong, poor timing

Spectators may not be coaches, but they are not uninformed, they shouted when Aboubakar Soulemanou substituted Kunde Malong a minute after Eteme Alain Richard opened scores at the 46th minute during the Cameroon-South Africa U-20 qualifiers for the African Youth Championship, Senegal 2015.

We are all aware that once a team scores the players are confident, the game changes and Soulemanou should have allowed them to play for some time before effecting his substitution.

It was also as if Soulemanou was under some obligation to replace Kunde Malong with a Cotonsport player, Ephraim Yosanguim who did not perform any better than Malong.

Soulemenou, visibly angry at the question on the why he replaced Kunde Malong said, “We estimated that he was not rendering us a service, he spent time walking around the field, allow us to manage our team, it is a choice, I aligned him and decided to replace him”.

But, it was glaring to the spectators that Malong with his physic was doing a good job holding midfield, distributing balls and once he was taken off, there was a leakage in midfield which the poor defence manned by Franck Bagnack could not contain.

Instead of admitting he had to favour his ‘Ndole’ from Cotonsport, Soulemanou got irritated. His decision cost him the equaliser and he would have to pain to play the return leg. In his line of thought, he says a draw game is not bad operation, but an overstatement.

However we agree with him when he says, “our opponents are just coming out of four international friendly matches in West Africa, we here only here in Odja and would have loved to measure up to others, playing against elite football clubs is not enough, a draw is not bad, we can also win them in South Africa”.

He justified the lack of cohesion by the fact that, “Cotonsport players arrived on late on Tuesday, professionals on Thursday and to build a team is not easy, we did not recognise our players in the field, though it is a good lesson for them as they prepare for the return leg”.

On the absence of some players called-up for the game, Soulemanou explained, “Olinga we are told was sick, he is not the only one, there is also Jean Marie Donkou, and Mbende did not show up and we had to make do with those available”. Professional players are on their way to their clubs because this is not the FIFA period and clubs are not liberating players easily.

Convocations have been sent to their clubs for next training and return leg, though it is not sure if they would be liberated or not, but they coach is confident that the same group can beat Bafana Bafana in the return leg and qualify for Senegal 2015.