By Nicholas Godwin
Let me start by saying that the Sierra Leone national team, Leone Stars, was given all the motivation any team would ask for…(Well any team from an impoverished nation like Sierra Leone.)
They were given $3,000 each as Presidential Departure Allowance, $ 5,000 as appearance fee for each of the 3 matches, $3,000 each for the Algeria and Côte D’Ivoire matches that ended in draws. In addition, the team manager gave each player an additional $1,000 after the Côte D’ivoire match. Also an amount of $18,000 was approved as backlog allowances and bonuses to 27 players in respect of friendly matches held in Morocco. The bonus for the friendly match in Instabul, Turkey had already been paid.

The total amount is no doubt significant, and it did not come from President Bio’s or any government officials’ pockets. Rather, I believe it came from the Consolidated Fund which is made up of tax payers’ money.
So why are some people offended that the players are being criticized? True, the attempt to attack Kei Kamara’s house was crossing the line, but please, people should be allowed to vent.
Let’s speak the truth, Leone Stars’ performances in the three matches were mediocre, to say the least. Algeria outplayed us by far and we had only the goalkeeper to thank, or we would have been walloped. The Côte D’ivoire match had us equalizing for the second time in extra time through a God-given miracle goal. Two draws, and it was like Leone Stars had qualified for the finals. We prayed when it came to Equatorial Guinea, instead of admonishing the players to improve their performances. Do we think God is a Sierra Leonean, or that Equatorial Guinea did not have people also praying for the team?
Those 28 players were chosen from hundreds to represent the country. IN MY PERSONAL OPINION apart from goalkeeper, Mohamed N. Kamara and defender Steven Caulker, all the rest of the players were found wanting.
With regards to the penalty missed by Kei Kamara, I have heard some people mention that talented footballers like Messi and Ronaldo have also missed penalties. Please…Let’s don’t compare. This was a crucial penalty that had to be scored. A nation’s happiness depended on it. Besides Messi and Ronaldo have the skill and expertise to compensate for missing a penalty by assisting or scoring other goals.
Leone Stars were given much and it was right to expect much from them. I hate to hear “Na so God say” or “Better luck next time.” We had all the luck this time. Did we expect God to come and kick that penalty for us? He had been with us since the start of the tournament. We cruised by purely on luck. How long did we expect that to continue?
By the way, this is not the first time that we have missed moving forward on important fixtures because we missed scoring penalty kicks. We should have learned our lesson by now. A special player should be trained on taking penalty kicks so that we don’t have to go through this again. There is a reason a team rejoices when it’s awarded a penalty…It’s supposed to be a goal. Soccer’s professional goal post measures 24 ft in width and 8 ft in height. You only have to go near one to see how big that is.
My point here is that Leone Stars disappointed us. Saying that does not mean we are disrespecting or abusing them. It’s the plain truth. In the three games how many times were Leone Stars on target? Let’s stop the sugar-coating. If the players are reprimanded and made aware that they were below par, perhaps that will make them put on a better performance next time.
“Better luck next time?” This was the “next time” and I don’t think we will ever have the “luck” that we had this time. We just did not make use of it…and for that a nation suffers!
That’s just my two cents.
