Monrovia- The senior national football team of Liberia will face Djibouti away from home on today March 20, 2014 at the Marrakech Stadium in Morocco in the 2025 African Cup of Nations preliminaries qualifiers.
By: Christopher C walker 0777898224/0886723075 [email protected]
The draw for the eight lowest-ranked teams according to the FIFA rankings were drawn in February in Cairo, Egypt.
The four (4) preliminary round winners will join the 44 exempted teams for the group stage.
New Liberia head coach Mario Marinica will be hoping to secure a decent result away from home before finishing the job in Liberia on the 26th of March.
Both team will have to put in their best if they are to make it to the group stage of the qualifiers.
The Liberian delegation have been in Morocco for the past five days with a 24 men square named by Marinica.
Lone Star who has been to the nations cup twice in 1996 and 2002 under it’s new coach took a dominant local based team for the double header.
Mario Marinica named 18 players from the local league and six foreign base players something he believed is the is the right decision.
When he took over the job and watched few matches in the league he said the league was slow and the players slow but to select 95% local players prove to be a complete contractions to his statement of the league slow.
Speaking before the team’s departure the Lone Star coach said he is going into the first leg to get a win which will make it easier for him during the second leg in Liberia.
According to him the local players have proved to be in good shape from the training he held with them over three weeks in Monrovia and is of the conversation they can deliver the needed result.
His selection of a dominate local based players is first of it’s kind in many years for the senior national team.
The last time both countries met in 2016 Liberia defeated Djibouti 5-0 in the first leg in Monrovia and won the second leg away from home 1-0.
Ahead of the encounter Mario Marinica on Tuesday evening announced his leadership structure with in his team.
Coach Mario Marinica announced Murphy Oscar Dorley as the new team captain while Marcus Marculey and Chauncey Freeman will serve as vice captains.
Dorley who has refuse the responsibility as captain several times first took the assistant captain role under Marinica predecessor Ansu Keita and recently worn his club Slavia Prague captain band in the UEFA cup against AC Milan.
According to a released from the LFA the former Monrovia Club Breweries midfielder will wear the captain’s armband for the Lone Star beginning with Wednesday’s first-leg match against Djibouti in the preliminary round of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers.
Meanwhile Mark Pabai of Koper FC in Slovenia have pulled out of the Lone Star square for the double-header against Dijbouti due to personal matters.
His absence means Lone Star Coach will have five professional players for the game and 18 local based players.
At the same time the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that all the return legs will be played on March 26th, 2024.
The match is scheduled for Wednesday, 20 March at 22:00 GMT.
Below is the full listening of Liberia players in Morocco
Goalkeepers
1. Tommy Sango LISCR FC
2. Abdulai Koulibaly Global Pharma
3. Emmanuel Deanneh Paynesville FC
Defenders
1. Philip Tarnue Watanga FC
3. Sebastin Teclar LISCR FC
4. Musa Sesay LPRC Oilers
5. Natus Swen Watanga FC
6. Jah Nyanforh Blackman Warrior
7. Sampson Dweh Viktoria Plzen/Czech Republic
8. Kemoh Kamara Bea Mountain
Midfielders
1. Mohammed Sangare Livingstone FC/Scotland
2. Joachim Adukor Sliema Wanderers/Malta
3. Nohan Kenneh Shrewsbury Town/England
4. Marcus Macauley PDRM/Malaysia
5. Abdulai Bility Heaven Eleven
6. Murphy Oscar Dorley Slavia Prague/Czech Republic
7. Chauncy Freeman Watanga FC
8. Farsedu Logan Watanga FC
9. Edward Ledlum Paynesville FC
10 Sekou Sheriff LISCR FC
Forwards
1. Clement Zubah Mighty Barrolle
2. William Gibson Heaven Eleven
3. Terry Sackor LPRC Oilers
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