Sierra Leone coach blames visa delay for trouncing
We didn’t even have a single preparation session, moans Keister
Sierra Leone coach John Keister was left fuming following their 0-4 defeat to Bafana Bafana in the international friendly at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
This after they arrived late in the country following challenges they experienced in securing their travel documents.
Keister said they could not prepare for the match as their players were stuck in other countries as they were waiting for visas to travel to SA and felt that Safa should have done better in assisting them.
“[I’m] just disappointed with the performance, but whenever you go, you have to prepare for it and we can’t be coming against one of the better teams on the continent and not prepare at all and not have a single preparation,” Keister lamented.
“I had players coming from their clubs staying in hotels overseas waiting for visas to get here so we can start preparing. I had to leave Freetown (Sierra Leone’s capital) to come to SA because I have a British passport, otherwise I would not be here.
“I had a group of players on one side and a group of players on the other side and didn’t have anything. I don’t think we deserve anything out of this today (Saturday), for me, I just want to apologise to the people of Sierra Leone because I don’t think we’ve done them justice.”
As a result, the coach felt his side deserved to lose as they only had an hour to prepare for the match against Bafana, which was on Friday.
“I think the whole situation surrounding us coming here has been a very difficult situation. There was nothing about the game, no energy level.”
“How can you judge players around the predicament we have been in in the last week or so trying to get to SA? Players came in on Friday and had an hour training session, what can you do in an hour?
If we got the visas last week we could have been here for a week preparing properly.
“We are going straight to Morocco from here, and I don’t think the visa situation is as bad as it is like here. So we will go there and regroup again.”