Algeria 3-2 Senegal, the Lions fell in Blida…

September 9th, 2008 | by: Magnusson | Comments Off

So last friday in Blida, Algeria beat us 3-2 and took the lead of Group 6. After a first half where we completely dominated the game, we could have, should have scored at least twice but the facts remain simple: Our strikers were not up to par!
After the first half, we went into it pretty confident we could at least get a draw out of it. After eight minutes, we even managed to score the first goal at the 53rd minute. On a very accurate Ousmane Ndoye cross, Issiar Dia scored his first goal with a Senegal jersey on. After that, we should have kept our heads in the game, but as usual with us, we thought the game was already won and that when the Algerians decided to equalize.

Just a few minutes after the Senegal goal, Bezzaz manages to slalom his way through our defense and humiliates Ibrahima Faye, Ousmane Ndoye and NGuirane Ndaw before crossing towards the net. Surprised, Cheikh Gueye scoored an own goal. It was the 59th minute.

The Fennecs multiply their assaults and our defense basically implodes. Seven minutes after the first Algerian goal, Nadir Belhadji who was essentially working us tirelessly, passes the ball to Bezzaz who heads it further to Rafik Saifi whoheads it inside Tony Sylva’s net.

At a moment where our whole team was in some kind of Limbo, we all seemed clueless as to what to do and how to reorganize. This is when our manifest lack of leadership showed. Nobody on our team was charismatic enough to ring the alarm and make us get back into this game.
On another one of those moments, Anthar Yahya jumlps higher than Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye and makes Tony Sylva pick up the ball in his cages for the third time.
The game is pretty much done with and Coach Saadane replaces Manof the Match Bezzaz with a defender. Lamine Ndiaye replaces our then best player Ousmane Ndoye with Frederic Mendy. We won’t see him again. In extra-time, on a Kader Mangane cross, Modou Sougou scores our second, useless, goal. Too late.