By Arfang M.S. Camara
The head coach of the Women national team, Mariama Boom Sowe has called on Gambians to rally behind the national team in their quest to qualify for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) when they play Cameroon in February.
Coach Mariama Boom Sowe made this call during an interview on Wednesday after humiliating the Police female team 6-1 in a game played at the Late Ousman Saho field in Old Yundum.
“We started training two-weeks back and this is our third week. We are preparing physically and mentally towards our second game against Cameroon in the AWCON qualifiers,” coach Boom Sowe further said.
“The Police called us on Monday that they needed this test game but what I told them was whether the players they have right now can compete with the national team and they said they will try their best to give us the test we need,” she also said.
She added that they had about 16 players at the beginning of their training, adding that they later included three players from the U-20 and also invited striker Fatou Sonko.
“All our strikers score goals during trainings and there is a big competition in the team unlike before,” she said further.
According to her, they could have invited Haleema Hamilton Froiland during their first encounter against Sierra Leone but “unfortunately we wrote to her club and they said it was late, likewise Adama Tamba,” she explained.
She added that this time around they spoke to her (Haleema’s) parents earlier and they always escort her to training.
“If we can get Haleema Hamilton Froiland, Adama Tamba, Fatou Kanteh, Ida Lie Mbye from Sweden and Fatou Dukureh then it would give a lot of weight to the team in our games against Cameroon in February,” she concluded.