By Momodou Jarju
The Gambia U-20 team manager Pa Suwareh Fye has disclosed that the young scorpions are expected to travel to Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday 14th February where they will play an international friendly match against Mozambique before leaving for their base during the course of the tournament in Alexandria.
Speaking to the GFF Media on Saturday, Pa Fye said they were supposed to leave on Sunday but they had some setbacks. He was quick to add that they have sorted out everything and they hope to depart on Tuesday.
“The team is in camp and we have three local test matches. We played against TMT which we drew and then we played with the big Fortune team and they won by 1-0 and the day before yesterday (Friday) we played against Marimoo and it was a very good game, well contested, but we were able to win by 2-0,” Fye said.
The Gambia U-20 are currently camped at the National Technical Training Center where 23 of the 25 players are lodged. The other two players, Kajally Drammeh (Cape Town City) and Mamin Sanyang (FC Bayern Munich) will link up with their teammates in Cairo. The Young Scorpions are expected to play their final local test match against Second Division side BK Milan on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, the U-20 squad on Friday played another friendly match against first division side Marimoo PakFood as the team intensifies its preparation ahead of the U-20 AFCON.
The young scorpions defeated Marimoo 2-0 courtesy of Haruna Rashid Njie and Ebrima Singhateh. Ba Lamin Sowe set-piece in the 61st minute was brilliantly headed into the net by Rashid Njie before Singhateh scored a sole goal nine minutes later.
Played at the late Ousman Saho Football Field, the first half ended goalless which saw Muhammed Jobe being replaced by Alieu Gibba as he sustained an injury.
Speaking to the press at the end of the match, Coach Abdoulie Bojang emphasized the importance of such test matches as part of the preparations of the tournament in Egypt.
