Football: Cosafa Youth championship-Seychelles lose opening match against Malawi |03 December 2011

The Seychelles-Malawi fixture was the second on the opening day of competition, Thursday, and the first in group B in Gaborone, Botswana.

Coach Gavin Jeanne’s team will next face Lesotho on Monday December 5 in their final group match and it is starting to look complicated for them to make it past the group phase.

Seychelles can only hope that Lesotho beat Malawi and they inflict a heavy defeat on the same Lesotho team in their last match so that they can enter the knockout stage on the basis of a superior goal difference.

Meanwhile, hosts Botswana were held to a goalless draw by Mozambique in Thursday’s opening match.

The players on the Seychelles team are: Raphael Moustache, Ian Ah Kong, Ahmed Maurice, Gino Agathine, Laurel Ladouce, Keddy Moustache, Andrew Onezia, Travis Quatre, Darius Quatre, Leeroy Mathiot, Rachim Padayachy, Kieron Sinon, Terence Antat, Denis Auguste, Colin Bibi, Laurent Vel, Basil Bertin, Marcus Maria, Benoit Marie and Stan Fanchette.

Also in Gaborone with the team are assistant coach Marc Mathiot, head of delegation Georges Bibi, medical officer Sam Moses and manager Henry Gamatis.

The 14 teams, including special guests Tanzania from East Africa, have been split into four groups, two of which have four sides and two that have three, with the nations playing each other in a round-robin format.

Teams get three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss, with the team with the most points finishing top of the pool.

The top teams in each pool advance to the semifinals, where the winners of group A will meet the winners of group C, and the winners of group B will play the top team in group D.

The winners of the two semifinal matches will advance to the Final, while the two losers will meet in the third place playoff to decide the bronze medallists.

The only Cosafa team missing in this year’s competition is the Comoros.
Group A: Botswana, Tanzania, Swaziland, Mozambique
Group B: Seychelles, Malawi and Lesotho
Group C: Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa and Mauritius
Group D: Angola, Madagascar, Namibia and Zimbabwe

G. G.