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Football: Interview with Ralph Jean-Louis following the Cosafa Castle Cup draw |05 May 2016

‘With players who have the will to play, we can do well’

With the right group of players there is no reason why the Seychelles national football team cannot do well come this June in the Cosafa Castle Cup, head coach Jean-Louis has said.

The draw for the 2016 Cosafa (Confederation of Southern Africa Football Associations) Castle Cup was made last week and Seychelles have been drawn alongside four-time champions Zimbabwe, Swaziland and neighbours Madagascar in group A. The competition will take place from June 11-25 in Namibia and the Seychelles team will kick off their campaign against Madagascar on June 11.

Coach Jean-Louis told Sports Nation that the team are already training once a week in preparation for the tournament and are looking into the possibility of having an overseas training camp before the competition.

“We have already talked to the Seychelles Football Federation to try and organise a training camp in Bahrain where we have been invited, but it is not finalised yet,” he said.

He added: “After the 10-day training camp, we would then come back to face Algeria in the Confederation of African Football (Afcon) qualifiers and that will be the perfect preparation for the tournament for our team.”

Coach Jean-Louis, who led Seychelles to their first ever gold medal win at the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) in 2011, also said that although the draw is tough he does not think that the names or indeed superior Fifa world rankings of those teams should stop them from getting good results.

“I want to have a good crop of players who want to play and give their all on the pitch. This is why I am looking into calling up players who are playing regularly for their clubs,” he pointed out.

He added that he has already decided to drop four players who have either not been performing well for their clubs or have not been getting enough playing time.

The former St Michel coach also outlined his desire for the squad to have a good balance in defence, while also having a solid midfield, with his attackers needing to be pacey and accurate finishers.

Aside from meeting Madagascar in their opening game, Seychelles will face Swaziland on June 13, before taking on Zimbabwe on June 15.

Only the group winners will qualify for the quarterfinals where they will be joined by South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, DR Congo and Mozambique.

Group B comprises Malawi, Angola, Lesotho and Mauritius.

 

S. N.

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