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extremely successful on youth
level in recent years
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lack of match practice and the
late hiring of the head coach have been visible in preperation matches
so far - will they find a coherent team in this short time?
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to start as hosts could make
the difference
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overview:
Mali among the best of Africa
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the
list of players (includes age and where do they play
analysis)
Mali like almost
all West African countries produce talented footballers since a long time
ago.
The famous Salif Keita of
the 1970's is not only a leading example but has been early founder of
one of the football schools which start to bloom over West Africa and should
sooner or later lead to a revival of Malian football which did not have
good results in the last years on the adult level.
On the youth level this
has already worked out: Mali is one of the top African nations here, and
the third place in the Under 20 World Championships 1999 as the best African
team has been the brightest success yet.
Based on this squad a lot
should be possible but Malis build up has been difficult: After having
been knocked out in the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifiers the
A team has played no competition matches and the actual coach Henri Kasperczak
is very experienced in Africa but has just been appointed a few months
ago.
To start as hosts could
be an edge as Burkina Faso 98 has shown. Helped first by seeding
Mali has been drawn into in a group where they have realistic chances to
reach the second round, provided they find a coherent team and extinguish
the defensive inconsistencies that have been reported from the preperation
matches. In Burkina Faso refereeing became a factor for the host team,
this might be the case here, too. |
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