Football: 18th Cosafa Cup 2018 - Long, tough road ahead for Seychelles |11 May 2018
With Seychelles taking part in this year’s 18th Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup to be staged in South Africa’s Limpopo province from 27 May to June 9, a tough challenge awaits them.
Ranked 194th out of 200 countries in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) world ranking published late last month, Seychelles are seen as the underdogs in this competition despite being a regular competitor.
Under new head coach Gavin Jeanne, Seychelles have been drawn in group A alongside the Comoros, Madagascar and Mozambique, who are all ranked higher than our local team in the Fifa world ranking.
Coached by former Liverpool and Portugal defender Abel Xavier, Mozambique are occupying 106th place, Madagascar are in 111th position and the Comoros are holding the 141st spot.
The teams will meet each other once and the winners of the group will move on to the quarterfinals where they will face hosts South Africa.
The team’s first match is against the Comoros on Sunday May 27, their second is against Madagascar on Tuesday May 29 and they will play Mozambique in the final group encounter on Thursday May 31.
It will be interesting to see if Seychelles can collect only their second victory in the regional showpiece which will this year make history as for the first time all 14 members of Cosafa will take part.
In fact Seychelles have played against all three opponents before. They have played once against both Mozambique and the Comoros.
Their meeting against the Mozambicans in Maputo on April 28, 2007 ended in a 0-2 loss and they were edged 1-2 by the Comoros on October 20, 2009 with Don Anacoura scoring the consolation goal.
On the other hand, Seychelles have played Madagascar four times in the competition earning a draw and losing the other three.
After losing 0-5 to the Malagasies on April 29, 2007 in Maputo, Mozambique, defender Godfrey Denis gave Seychelles a 1-1 draw against the Malagasy side on July 21, 2008 in Witbank, South Africa.
On June 11, 2016 in Windhoek, Namibia, the Seychelles team were edged 0-1 by the Malagasy side and they suffered a third defeat on a 0-2 score on July 26, 2017 in Moruleng, South Africa.
After registering two heavy defeats last year to Zimbabwe (0-4) and Madagascar (1-4), Mozambique will be hoping for much better results this time round. They were semifinalists in the 2004 and 2008 and then went one better in 2015 when they lost 0-2 in the final to Namibia.
As for Madagascar, they will prove that they will be no pushovers this year as they have 12 wins, six draws and 10 defeats in 28 matches in the competition.
They were ousted in the first round in 2017 despite taking seven points from their nine available, undone on goal difference by eventual winners Zimbabwe.
Granted membership of Cosafa in 1999 but excluded from taking part in the competition until 2005 because of their failure to send a team to all of Cosafa’s youth tournaments, which was prerequisite for involvement in the Cosafa Castle Cup Seychelles made their debut in the yearly tournament in 2005 when they played in the mini tournament in Mauritius, but were beaten 3-0 by South Africa on a pond-like pitch in Curepipe.
After a disappointing showing in 2006 and 2007, they won their first-ever match in the competition as they hammered Mauritius 7-0, in no small part thanks to four goals from Philip Zialor, the only player to score four times in a Cosafa Castle Cup match. It also remains the largest victory in the history of the Cosafa Castle Cup.
In total, Seychelles have played 22 matches in the Cosafa Cup winning just one, earning three draws and losing 18 times. They have scored just 14 goals and conceded a whopping 51, an average of two goals per game.
Seychelles’ Cosafa Castle Cup record
DATE VENUE OPPONENTS RESULTS GOALSCORERS
26-2-2005 Curepipe SOUTH AFRICA 0-3
22-7-2006 Windhoek NAMIBIA 1-1 Wilnes Brutus
23-7-2006 Windhoek ZAMBIA 0-2
28-4-2007 Maputo MOZAMBIQUE 0-2
29-4-2007 Maputo MADAGASCAR 0-5
19-7-2008 Witbank MAURITIUS 7-0 Collin Laporte, Philip Zialor (4),
Don Anacoura, Trevor Poiret, Godfrey Denis
21-7-2008 Witbank MADAGASCAR 1-1
23-7-2008 Witbank SWAZILAND 0-1
18-10-2009 Bulawayo SWAZILAND 1-2 Nelson Laurence
20-10-2009 Bulawayo COMOROS 1-2 Don Anacoura
22-10-2009 Bulawayo BOTSWANA 0-2
8-7-2013 Lusaka NAMIBIA 2-4 Philip Zialor (2)
10-7-2013 Lusaka MAURITIUS 0-4
17-5-2015 Moruleng NAMIBIA 0-0
19-5-2015 Moruleng ZIMBABWE 0-1
21-5-2015 Phokeng MAURITIUS 0-1
11-6-2016 Windhoek MADAGASCAR 0-1
13-6-2016 Windhoek SWAZILAND 0-4
15-6-2016 Windhoek ZIMBABWE 0-5
26-7-2017 Moruleng MADAGASCAR 0-2
28-7-2017 Phokeng MOZAMBIQUE 1-2 Roddy Melanie
30-6-2017 Phokeng ZIMBABWE 0-6
Seychelles overall record
P W D L F A
Home 0 0 0 0 0 0
Away 22 1 3 18 14 51
Total 22 1 3 18 14 51
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