{"id":30745,"date":"2011-10-13T04:40:23","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T04:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=30745"},"modified":"2011-10-13T04:40:23","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T04:40:23","slug":"skcs-kamara-gets-first-hand-look-at-south-africa-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=30745","title":{"rendered":"SKC’s Kamara gets first-hand look at South Africa debacle"},"content":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2013 While most of Major League Soccer was taking a well-deserved breather last weekend, Kei Kamara was witness to one of the most bizarre events in world soccer’s recent history.\u00a0 Sierra Leone<\/em> star on field for ill-fated celebration in ACN qualifiers <\/em><\/p>\n

With Kamara\u2019s Sierra Leone and rivals South Africa tied with eight points in their African Cup of Nations qualifier group, both countries trailed group-leaders Niger by a single point. On Saturday, the Leone Stars and Bafana Bafana met at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, for their final qualification match, which finished in a 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n

Niger, meanwhile, lost 3-0 against group-worst Egypt to finish qualification with three teams tied on nine points. South Africa erupted in celebration, convinced that their group-best goal differential had seen them through qualifying.<\/p>\n

What they apparently weren\u2019t aware of, however, was that the first tiebreaker for teams tied on points was head-to-head results. Niger earned six points in their four matches against Sierra Leone and South Africa; Bafana Bafana earned five from their matches against Sierra Leone and Niger.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir celebration was awesome,\u201d Kamara said of South Africa. \u201cIt was brilliant watching all the dances and all that. After we got back to the locker room, we heard that they didn\u2019t qualify, which was also awesome and brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

With five head-to-head points as well, Sierra Leone\u2019s only chance of qualification was to play for the win, but Kamara said South Africa wasted time during the last 15 minutes of regulation in a clear attempt to salvage the draw that they assumed would put them through.<\/p>\n

Still, just like everyone else in Mbombela Stadium, Kamara said he and his teammates simply assumed that South Africa had qualified by the skin of their teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no idea,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said Niger lost and South Africa qualified. We just laid down on the field and soaked everything in [while they celebrated]. It was beautiful but unlucky for them. But the way they played the last 15 minutes and celebrated, I don\u2019t feel bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sierra Leone have not qualified for the tournament since 1996, but Kamara said the future is only getting brighter for a country whose development has been stalled by of civil war and internal unrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say we\u2019re disappointed that much,\u201d Kamara said of failure to qualify. \u201cWe worked really hard to put our country in the position we\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work only continues for the Leone Stars \u2013 World Cup qualification begins in January with a match against the Cape Verde Islands. But hopes are high as well. Their relative success in ACN qualifying has moved the country into 68th in the FIFA rankings and into 16th in Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve showed signs for the future,\u201d Kamara said. \u201cHopefully, we can qualify for the next [Cup of Nations] or the World Cup coming up. We have our hopes up. The team is very young and we have a good coach so we\u2019re just looking to keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew<\/em> Wiebe<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2013 While most of Major League Soccer was taking a well-deserved breather last weekend, Kei Kamara was witness to one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,1],"tags":[10374,5236,1476,5191],"class_list":["post-30745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-uncategorized","tag-kansas-city","tag-kei-kamara","tag-leone-stars","tag-sierra-leone-footballers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}