Football: Cosafa Castle Cup 2017 Seychelles drawn in group B |20 May 2017

Seychelles will play against Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Madagascar in a competitive group B of this year’s Cosafa Castle Cup which kicks off on June 25 in South Africa’s North West Province.

The draw for the continental showpiece organised by the Cosafa (Council of Southern African Football Associations) and sponsored by Castle Lager, took place earlier this week.

Group A comprises Malawi, Mauritius, Angola and Tanzania.

Guest nation Tanzania is competing for the third time after 1997 and 2015, with Comoros Islands having declined to take part this year.

Seychelles will play their first match against Indian Ocean rivals Madagascar on Monday June 26 at the Moruleng Stadium. The team’s second game is on Wednesday June 28 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium against Mozambique before taking on Zimbabwe in their last group match on Friday June 30 at the Moruleng Stadium.

So far Seychelles have won just one of their previous 19 matches in the Cosafa Castle Cup, drawing three and losing the remaining 15 after making their debut in the tournament in 2005.

Three years later (on July 19, 2008) in Witbank, South Africa, the team picked up their only success and it came against Mauritius whom they thumped 7-0 on the back of four goals by former St Michel hitman Philip Zialor who still holds the record for the most goals by a single player in a Cosafa Castle Cup match.

The fact that Seychelles have looked competitive at times, can we expect a second win this year?

Local football fans will have to wait until the start of the competition to get the answer to this question.

Meanwhile, the two group winners will progress to the quarterfinals and will meet host nation South Africa and Swaziland who are on standby. South Africa will meet the winners of group A and Swaziland will face the group B winners.

In the other two quarterfinals Botswana will take on Zambia and 2015 winners Namibia will play Lesotho.

The losing teams in the quarterfinals will enter the plate competition as has been the case in the last two competitions.

The final is slated for July 9, 2017.

First played in 1997, the Cosafa Castle Cup has been won four times each by South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Angola have three titles to their name and Namibia one.

Compared to past years, the organisers have come up with additional activities for the forthcoming showpiece which will also see a five-a-side football competition.

A number of foot stars from the region have also accepted to lend their support to the competition.

G. G.