Time for the Eagles to take flight

I knew as soon as the draw was made for this final round of African qualifiers that Mali could not afford any missteps seen as they were in a group with arguably Africa’s best side- the Black Stars of Ghana. They would need to hold serve against Benin and Sudan and hope to somehow nip some points away from Ghana in their head-to-head matches. Neither of those things have happened so far and Mali find themselves on the outside looking in. They got off on the wrong foot by drawing with Sudan 1-1 in March and followed that by falling 2-0 to Ghana. A victory back on June 21 against this weekends opponents Benin restored some hope but it’s almost too little, too late.

For the Eagles to maintain any shot at South Africa 2010 they will need to win their 3 remaining games and hope that Ghana falter at some point. Basically, there is a mathematical chance at qualification yet many would argue not a realisitc chance.

Mali will once again be without Momo Sissoko and Mahamadou Diarra for this crucial match. An interesting addition though is newcomer Mamadou Samassa. The former French junior international is one of those that is benefitting from FIFA’s change of the age limit to commit to a country for international duty. The ruling was changed recently when FIFA met in the Bahamas and Mamadou has since been called up by Mali even though he had been capped by France at the junior level.

Even without key players in Sissoko and Diarra, Mali has a lot of firepower in Freddy Kanoute, Seydou Keita, and Modibo Maiga and I look for them to handle the Squirrels of Benin and keep their faint hopes alive. Final score, Mali 3, Benin 2.