Gambian coaches off to Azerbaijan for World Cup draw

The Normalisation Committee of the Gambia Football Association says it is pleased to announce that Head Coach of National Women U-17 team Mr Buba K Jallow and Miss Mariama Sowe will attend the official draw of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan slated for Friday 6th July, 2012.

The officials are expected to leave  Banjul on Thursday 5th July 2012 to join other countries qualified for this year’s Women’s summer extravaganza that will kick off on September 22nd to October 13th 2012.

The  official draw will take place at the International Mugan Center in Baku at 19:00hrs to  decide the fixtures for the group stage of the World Cup 2012 in Azerbaijan, which will be played in Baku and Lankaran.

Gambia have never qualified a women’s team for a major championship before, and they had never even entered a team in the U-17 preliminaries before. So the success of Coach Buba Jallow’s team earlier this year was a pleasant surprise for the country.

The Girl Scorpions held on for an aggregate win over Sierra Leone in the opening round, despite struggling through the away leg. In the second head-to-head tie, they were underdogs against Tunisia, but they triumphed in both legs, most impressively 2-1 in Tunis.

Although they will no doubt be considered outsiders at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the Gambian team will be buoyed by the win over Tunisia, particularly after they came from a goal behind in the away leg.

“The manner in which the players came back from the early goal to win on foreign soil is very encouraging,” said assistant coach and former international Chero Mbenga, who was on Gambia’s first-ever women’s team in 2006.

“[In Azerbaijan], we hope to have a respectable tournament. Hopefully it will be good exposure for our girls and perhaps provide them the opportunity to get to more advanced leagues.”