Football: International friendly - Seychelles and Swaziland in a stalemate |29 March 2018
The Seychelles senior national team shared a stalemate in a 0-0 draw against visitors Swaziland at Stad Linite on Tuesday afternoon in an international friendly match.
The two sets of players were greeted before the match by the Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture Mitcy Larue along with the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) chairman Elvis Chetty for the first match of Gavin Jeanne who has been installed as the country’s head coach for the next two seasons as he prepares for our involvement in the next Indian Ocean Island Games in Mauritius in 2019.
The Swazis also were unveiling their new head coach in the shape of Anthony Mdluli who took charge of his first match after their Dutch coach Pieter De Jongh was relieved of his duties 10 months into the job following a 0-7 loss to Zambia over two legs in the African Nations Championship (Chan) third qualifying round.
The Swazis tried to impose their game on our new look squad with some swift play and they went close in the 10th minute when Mkhwazi Sihlangu laid the ball to his captain Tsabedze Nkosingiphile whose stinging low shot from long range was well saved by goalkeeper Alvin Michel.
The Seychelles selection nearly stunned their opponents in the 20th minute from an intelligently played corner by Collin Esther to defender Yannick Manou whose left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area skidded off the crossbar with the Swazi goalkeeper Gwebu Nhlanhla well beaten.
In the 28th minute, Swazi striker Mkhontfu Mthunzi dispossessed Manou following a short pass played by goalkeeper Michel but he could not hit the target as he was closed down by an alert defence.
On the half hour mark, Mdluli Banele pounced on a loose ball to instinctively release Mthunzi whose low shot was stopped by goalkeeper Michel for a goalless first half.
The second half lacked quality as the visitors grew frustrated with the local team’s rugged defence and a lack of penetration despite both bringing in on fresh players but they still could not create decent scoring opportunities.
On the stroke of full time, the Swazis almost capitalised on a mistake by debutant Travis Laurence, who had come on as a substitute. Swazi substitute Mkhanazi Melusi latched onto the ball to run at the Seychelles defence and he laid the ball to Mkhwazi Sihlangu who shot agonisingly wide as the teams shared the spoils in this friendly match which was only their second ever meeting after the Swazi triumphed 4-0 in the Cosafa Castle Cup over our national side in 2016.
Seychelles head coach Gavin Jeanne, whose chosen manager Gerard Gonthier stepped down before this match, told Sports NATION he was generally pleased with the result especially as he has had a short preparation with the players for this encounter.
“It was difficult to put a team together in three days but we managed to at least tighten our defence and to keep our opponents at bay which was an achievement though we now need to improve our attack which did not perform well. I felt our defenders did well as they looked composed and calm as it was our priority not to concede which was one of the biggest weaknesses of our past national teams,” the Seychelles head coach related to Sports NATION.
As for Swazi coach Mdluli, he was also happy with his team’s performance and the drawn match.
“It was an interesting match and our opponents played well defensively and they tried to build from the back but we also failed to take the few chances we created but with seven new players in our starting line-up, it was never going to be easy for them at this level,” Swazi coach Mdluli explained to Sports NATION.
R. J-L.