Football: Cosafa Cup 2016 |08 June 2016

Seychelles morale high ahead of first match

The Seychelles national team are expected to arrive in the Namibian capital city, Windhoek, to take part in the Cosafa Cup.

Morale in the Seychelles camp is high after the team played an impressive game against Africa’s top side Algeria in the 2017 African Cup of Nations group J where despite losing on a 2-0 score line, they left the pitch with their heads held high as they matched their opponents considerably during the match.

Captain and goalkeeper Vincent Euphrasie said he believes that with this squad they can really do well in Namibia and they are confident they can produce some more good performances like the one last Thursday.

Seychelles have been drawn against Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Madagascar in group A for the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup, and they will begin their campaign against Madagascar on Saturday in what should be a very exciting contest against our neighbours.

Group B consists of Malawi, Angola, Lesotho and Mauritius, with only the top side in each group qualifying for the quarterfinals. The winners of group A will face Zambia in the quarterfinal, while the group B winners will go up against South Africa. The other two quarterfinal matchups will see Botswana meet host nation and defending champions Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo facing Mozambique.

There will also be a plate final, where the losing side from the quarterfinals will join each other in the plate semifinal and so on.

Zimbabwe and Zambia have won the most Cosafa cups, both winning it on four occasions.

As for Seychelles, their best moment at the tournament came in 2008, when the team smashed Mauritius 7-0, with striker Phillip Zialor finishing as the top scorer of the tournament with four goals to his name.

The team will certainly be looking at that tournament for inspiration and hopefully they can make Seychelles proud as they look to follow up their encouraging performance against Algeria with some good performances starting this Saturday.

The Seychelles team for the Cosafa Cup are as follows:

Goalkeepers: Vincent Euphrasie, Jerome Dingwall, Gino Melanie.

Defenders: Yannick Manoo, Andrew Onezia, Nelson Laurence, Jones Joubert, Benoit Marie, Fabio Lemiel, Jude Nancy.

Midfielders: Elvin Estico, Basil Esther, Lucas Panayi, Archille Henriette, Carl Hopprich, Collin Esther, Karl Hall, Daniel Maillet, Trevor Vidot, Colin Bibi, Marlon Sophola.

Forward: Elijah Tamboo, Leeroy Corallie, Gervais Waye-Hive, Dine Suzette.

S. N.