The Covid-19 can contribute to creating ubiquitous situations. This is the case at the African Cup of Nations (CAN) football. The Comoros team, for its first participation in the continental competition, thus plays bad luck and is greatly diminished before its match in the round of 16 against Cameroon, Monday January 24: twelve members of the Comorian delegation are positive, including two of his goalkeepers, Moyadh Ousseni and Ali Ahamada.
The problem is that the third, Salim Ben Boina, holder against Morocco and Ghana, injured his shoulder and could not finish the third group match. The whole question now is who will be the last bastion of the team on Monday. “The goalkeeper, we haven’t determined it yet, and even if it was the case, I wouldn’t say it”, said goalkeeper coach Jean-Daniel Padovani on Sunday.
Ben Boina, if handed over, could be aligned. Or it will be an outfield player. In order to designate its doorman against the Indomitable Lions, the staff of the Coelacanthes “has decided to gather all the valid players and put the situation flat”, explained Jean-Daniel Padovani, acknowledging that “ we will never find the perfect goalkeeper”.
Midfielder Nadjim Abdou explained that it shouldn’t be him. “You can’t invent yourself as a goalkeeper for a round of 16”, he explained. while adding however: “But we are there for the nation, if we have to make sacrifices, me or someone else, we will know how to do it. The one in the cages will fight like the ten players on the field. »
How did Comorians contract Covid-19? Perhaps because at the time of the winning goal against Ghana (3-2) on January 18, “we jumped on each other, staff, leaders”, recalls Jean-Daniel Padovani. Corn “the other teams also jump on each other”, he continues.
The coach prefers “Do not enter the field by being defeatist. It was historic that the Comoros qualified for the CAN, historic that they won a match, historic to reach the round of 16. It is also historic if a football team plays a match with a player [de champ] in the cages, he concludes, we are in history”.
