MOGADISHU – President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” hailed the under-17 national football players who shellacked Uganda Cubs in the semifinals and urged them to also bury the Tanzanian squad in the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations Under-17 Championship final match in Burundi on Sunday and return home with the cup.
Somalia Under-17 team, whose coach said is composed of determined, confident and patriotic young men, made history when last week it drubbed Kenya to qualify for the knockout phase.
“Congratulations to our Under 17 for reaching the CECAFA cup final. You have made us proud,” Farmajo said of the country’s Ocean Stars in a twitter message on Wednesday. “I wish you well and bring the cup home.”
The-up-and-coming star striker, Farhan Mohamed Ahmed, scored the lone winning goal in the 69-minute and his team held onto it till the last minute of the match. Ahmed also netted the solitary goal that bruised Kenya’s egos.
Uganda Cubs, the Champion of the last CECAFA U-17 game in 2009, failed to convert a penalty kick in the second half. The game’s inaugural edition was won by Burundi in 2007.
“It’s disappointing that we created several scoring chances, but failed to score,” said Uganda Cubs’ Coach Peter Onen after the game, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Somalia’s Youth and Sports Minister Khadija Mohamed Diriye has also congratulated the team, saying that the head of the Somali Football Federation, Abdiqani Sa’id Arab will travel to Burundi to boost the morale of the national squad.
“It is a historic victory for the country and for the federal government of Somalia,” Khadija said, expressing her hope that the team will “score a bigger victory for the Somali nation and hope very much that they will return home with the cup.”
She urged the public to support the national team and pray for them to win in its final match against Tanzania on Sunday.
Sports activities in the country have been booming in recent years, especially in the war-scarred capital, Mogadishu, where in April 6 hundreds of runners took part in a two-and-a-half mile marathon to mark the international Day of Sport for Development and Peace.
While also calling the Somali team’s win historic, coach Salad Farah Hassan emphasized that despite his squad’s hard work, the victory was “inscribed by Allah.”
“We were confident and worked hard. The victory, I think, came because of our confidence and unity — from the head of the delegation to players and trainers. We worked together in a confident, good-hearted way. We were united.
“I think we worked hard and Allah inscribed our win. It’s a victory that delights us very much,” he said, adding that his team played according to plan, especially in its matches against Kenyan and Ugandan teams.
When asked how a team from a country recovering from decades of civil war has achieved these victories against teams from relatively stable nations, he said: “These players are young. they’re picked up from school (football) tournaments. They have an excellent ambition, good intention, good tactics, have quality, are patriotic, industrious and aspiring to go places.
“I believe if someone is determined, he can reach wherever he wants,” he said.
The coach exuded confident about the upcoming match against Tanzania.
“We’re hopeful that we will reach that victory, Allah willing,” he said, stressing that the Sunday game won’t be “different from other matches we played against Kenya and Uganda.” Somalia’s Ocean Stars clobbered the teams of both nations.
“You can sense that it (the Tanzanian team) is a good and strong team because it’s reached the finals,” Hassan said. “We won’t consider it easy nor are we afraid of it.
“As I told you, we’re all confident in ourselves, determined and there is no differences among us,” Hassan said. “We’re determined to reach our goal and we will work hard toward it, Allah willing. We’re satisfied with what Allah prescribes us, victory or loss.”
Hassan said he had had good hopes that his team would achieve victories because “we believe in Allah and believe in ourselves and have confidence in ourselves.”
In addition to the Somali and Tanzanian teams, five other teams from Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Zanzibar took part in the the tournament sponsored by Fifa. The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations suspended Zanzibar after fielding overage players. Ethiopia was also fined US$5,000 for adding to its lineup three overage players who were later expelled from the game.
Uganda and Kenya will now play on Sunday for a spot in the third place.