Football: Caf Champions League - St Michel jet off today to Ethiopia |11 February 2016
St Michel leave today for Ethiopia for their Valentine’s Day (Sunday February 14) first round away leg match of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League.
The match is scheduled to be played at the Addis Ababa Stadium and it will be the first time the two teams meet. But it will be the second time St Michel meet an Ethiopian team after clashing with Coffee FC in the old African Champions’ League in 1998.
If they won 1-0 here thanks to a Gerald Rosette goal, St Michel lost 1-8 to Coffee FC in Ethiopia and Ralph Jean-Louis scored their consolation goal.
Speaking to Sports Nation, manager Andrew Jean-Louis said they have quite a tough task in front of them as he remembers very well the players suffered from the high altitude in Addis Ababa in 1998.
“It is never easy to play football at high altitude as you grow tired very quickly. This is why we will have to play disciplined football. We would have liked to be in Ethiopia since the start of the week to get acclimatised but it’s unfortunate we have not been able to. We leave today and will get just one full training session tomorrow as we will not be able to do much on Saturday, on the eve of our match.
The players are ready to give it their best shot to grind out a positive result,” said manager Jean-Louis.
St Michel warmed up for the away fixture by taking part in the Pre-season tournament organised by the Seychelles Football Federation and they collected four wins in as many matches.
After beating the newly national selection 4-0 in their first match, defending Barclays league division one champions St Michel collected a 6-2 victory against Barclays league division two champions Plaisance, beat Intelvision Cup winners LightStars 4-2 and eased past newly promoted St John Bosco on the same score.
With 18 goals scored and six conceded, St Michel should be confident with the morale-boosting victories which will surely put them in the right frame of mind for Sunday’s away match.
The players chosen for the trip are: Nelson Sopha, Rai Jean-Louis, Liroy Mathiot, Jones Larue, Ramely Pascal, Allain Larue, Alex Nibourette, Trevor Vidot, Nelson Laurence, Leeroy Coralie, Gervais Trevor Waye-Hive, Joel Barbé, Kennan Nourrice, Fenosoa Jacquot Jocelyn, Yannick Hubert Manoo, Gino Melanie, Silvio Adrienne, Besabotsy Leonard, Selwyn César, Hassan Ally, Romial Oreddy, Norvil Gaspard, Trevor Michel Poiret, Karl Hall and Joshua Vangadasamy.
The officials are: Philip Sinon (head of delegation), Roddy Victor (head coach), Brian Uranie (technical advisor), Ralph Jean-Louis, Derreck Agathine, Andrick Savy, Philip Zialor (coaches), Andrew Jean-Louis (manager), Neo Adrienne (assistant manager) and Francois Bijoux (physiotherapist).
G. G.