Liberiansoccer.com Retrospect the year 2003
( 01-04-2004)-What
an amazing year 2003 was. It was a mesmerizing year that besieged
Liberia s soccer, but later culminated into an extraordinary
landmark for Liberia' s senior team. Both on and off the pitch, 2003
has its own tales and holds a lot for Liberia s soccer adjustment.
Inside the LFA
The year began with the Liberia Football Association awarding
players, teams, and officials for their trademarks after the 2002
local league season. Eight teams were then drawn into the first
premier league, but the league was called off as rebels rained
mortars on the capital Monrovia.
Another disappointment saw three of Liberia s representatives to the
2003 CAF Competitions banned for their inability to register for the
competitions. Champion club LPRC-Oilers, CAF Cup representative
LISCR FC and Cup Winners Cup representative Might Blue Angles will
now have to wait two or three years to resume continental
participation.
Weah waves good-bye
Liberia and World s soccer legend, King George Weah parted company
with Arabian side Al Jazirah after three seasons and officially drew
the curtains on his 15 years of international football. Weah now
looks into football management and sees his country as the rightful
place to begin another highlight off the pitch.
Players galore
While Weah was untying his boot strings, Liberia s 2002 discovery
Francis Doe went thrilling the Bescot Stadium on a two-week trial in
England. But it was former Liberia s U-14 eye-opener Dioh Williams
that overwhelmed the Swedes at BK Hacken. The 19-year old netted 16
goals and claimed his team top scorer crown and walked away with the
overall third top scorer medal in his first season in Sweden.
Zizi Roberts got a healthy re-launch of his Olympiakos nightmares as
he joined MLS side Colorado Rapids, while a host of other Liberian
players drifted into Arab land with Indonesia hosting virtually 15
Liberian Players including former Lone Star skipper, Joe Nagbe.
On the African scene, vista midfielder Zah Krangar led his Liberian
countrymen into Cameroon, while Lawrence Doe moved into the desert
land of Mali. Murphy Nagbe sprung into Durban, South Africa leaving
enterprising Sackie Doe, Bob Seo, Patrick Sieh and Boye Pratt rested
at Eleven Wise in the Ghanaian first division league.
Lone Star tears and joy
Liberia miss-out to the 2004 African Cup, loosing a crucial match to
Guinea at the Accra Sports Stadium. Fielding a refugee dominant team
in four decisive international matches, Liberia has no option as the
war intensified in Liberia. The team went down in all the four
matches, but the players had plenty to show and too much too to
complain about.
In the first game, Guinea earned a vital 2-1 win against Liberia,
and then Ghana U-20 grabbed a huge 6-0 aggregate win to qualify for
the All-African games in Nigeria. And away into Niamey, Niger, a
controversial 1-0 defeat finally ended Liberia s ANC 2004
qualification campaign.
But when all seems lost, although some calm is brought to Monrovia,
Liberia reaped a gainful start into another season of international
football.
Propped up by the return of Zizi Roberts after more than 14 months,
Liberia needed to beat the Gambia 3-0 in Monrovia and qualifier for
the group stage of the 2006 African Cup and World Cup Qualifiers.
The MLS star shed tears before the cameras and netted the
curtain-raiser, but it was the local star, Isaac Tondo that restored
Liberia s football glory before a tearful crowd scoring twice on the
night.
Liberia now joins Senegal, Mali, Zambia, Togo and Congo-Brazzaville
in Group 1 of the qualifiers, which starts later this Year.
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