Mansally Left Out in Cold During Gambia's 1-1 Tie

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Mansally Left Out in Cold During Gambia's 1-1 Tie

Thursday, 13 October 2011 23:05

New England forward Kenny Mansally travelled halfway across the world to link up with his Gambian teammates for this past Saturday's African Cup of Nations qualifier with Burkina Faso.
The long journey did not turn out as he had planned.
Mansally remained rooted to the bench as the Scorpions conceded an equalizer in second-half stoppage time to the eventual Group F winners and squandered the advantage gained by Futty Danso's headed opener. mansasllynyassi

After returning to New England earlier this week, Mansally said he featured in the first team during Gambia's training sessions prior to the game and expressed his surprise that he did not feature at all in the 1-1 draw.
That shock and the absence of the playing time, however, doesn’t diminish Mansally's desire to join his international teammates in the future.
“I was a little bit surprised, but, for me, it's my country, Gambia,” Mansally told MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday. “Any time they call me, I want to go and I have to go and represent my country.”
The draw and the overall performance prompted plaudits from a federation official in the local papers after the match, but it left the Gambians out of the reckoning for next year's tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and raised questions about the future of coach Paul Put as the national team manager.
It may take some time to sort out Put's future with the side, but the Gambians will soon turn their focus to qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Mansally said that this Cup of Nations campaign may not have ended with a cherished berth in the tournament, but it did help prepare the squad for the challenges Ivory Coast, Morocco and either Chad or Tanzania will pose when the second round of World Cup qualifying starts next year.
“At least we got more experience this year,” Mansally said. “We hope next year that we will prevail [in World Cup qualifying].”
Source: mlssoccer.com

Comments

0 #1 2011-10-14 11:27

A good professional attitude worth emulating by all. Your presence on the bench was as important as the players on the pitch.

I say hard luck and wish you all better luck in the next round of international matches.

I hope the manager retains his job. I have not seen many matches of the national team,but I was impressed by their friendly match against Angola before the African Nations Cup.

I think our game is moving in the right direction under Paul Put. And the future is bright because our players are young and gaining more experience.

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