The Stallions of Burkina Faso on Thursday night at the 19 May 1956 Stadium, Anaba won their second Bronze Medal in the U17 tournament with a 2-1 sound slap on expected winners, Young Eagles of Mali.
Rashima FC attacker, Ousmane Camara ‘killed’ the Malians with the curtain raiser via a well taken penalty kick in the 26th Minute aftr he was brought down by Souleymane Sanogo in the box.
Ousmane Camera provided the cross pass that found unmarked Appolinaire Bougma for the 2nd goal in the 47th minute. He was declared MAN OF THE MATCH in the encounter against Mali.
Mamadou Doumbia pulled one back for Mali in the 58th minute. Doumbia scored in every match except the semifinal as he made 4 goals haul in the tournament having scored in the quarterfinal against Congo in the 2nd minute; against Cameroon in the group stages with the winner at 90+5 minute and the winner against Burkina Faso in their group game. He is current highest goal scorer with 4 goals behind Amara Diouf of Senegal who has 5 goals in his pouch.
Mali tried every trick in the books to get an equalizer especially when the Burkina Faso Goalkeeper, Isidore Traore was injured in the dying minutes of the first half with the boot to his head and rushed immediately to the clinic. The offside tactics the Malians employed did not work against the Stallions.
Burkina Faso won their first Bronze in 2009 at the same Algeria beating Malawi 2-0. She equaled the Bronze record of Mali that won the Medal in 1999 at Guinea beating Cameroon1-0 and 2001 in Seychelles.
If performance on goals scored were to determine the winners, Mali would have had a walk over scoring 6 goals and conceding none. The only team with a clean sheet, (not conceding a goal at all in the tournament) tossing their goalkeeper at advantage to cart home the Golden gloves for the Best Goalkeeper. Burkina Faso scored 5 goals and conceded 4.
The performance of the two teams so far in this tournament, apart from considering goals scored or conceded had shown the Losers’ final may be dicey. The two teams had met in a Group C game on 1st May 2023 and a 25th minute goal from Mamadou Doumbia goal from a Tia assist caused the Stallions of Burkina Faso to bow. There were two International friendly matches on 30th of January 2004 Mali won 3-2 and on 12th August 2009 Mali again won 3-0.
The stats had also shown the game could go either way with a negligible tilt to Mali. Mali had 65-61 shots at goal with 17-19 on target meaning that the two teams have no superiority on marksmanship; Mali is lower on ball possession with 32.8-41.8% but far superior on stringing passes than the Stallions 459.5-272.8 on the average meaning Mali may cause suddenly upset with passes because ball control is different to passes which may be stringed to dangerous level within a twinkling of an eye.
The foul calls of 64-57 of Mali shows that both sides could be rough but the new calls depends on pressure; the offside calls of 9-3 with the passes is a red signal to Burkina Faso that a little nap at the back players could cost them the Bronze medal and the corner kicks figures of 34 – 13 in favor of Burkina shows that perhaps their acts of putting pressure on opponents could attract an own goal or defensive errors that attackers could take advantage of like faulty clearance of defence lines or a ricochet of a ball.
The stats of Thursday night highly favored the Malians except the goals scored. Mali had 19-10 shots at goal with 8-4 on target; had 69-31% passes showing the Eagles were in charge of the game; BFA was desperate to win committing 24-15 fouls with 3-1 yellow cards meaning they care less about being gentlemen on the field even with their time wasting tactics; as expected Mali alone were caught offside thrice none to BFA while Mali mounted great pressure with 5-2 corner kicks.
Mali won against fellow WAFU compatriot, Burkina Faso by a lone goal and dazed the defending Champions, Cameroon 2-0 before drowning DR Congo 3-0 in the quarterfinal playing two matches at the group stage because South Sudan was sent home for failing MRI test that determines bone age.
Burkina Faso that had to play only two games in Group C because South Sudan was disqualified, first lost to rivals Mali also from the WAFU zone by a lone goal; bashed defending Champions Cameroon 2-1 and shocked most decorated U17 team in Africa, Golden Eaglets of Nigeria 2-1 in the Quarters.
Both teams lost via penalty shootout, the first games to so go far, in the semifinals last Sunday. Atlas Lions of Morocco could not dent the record of clean sheet against Mali meaning not conceding a goal in the tournament but shouldered the Malians off the track via penalty 6-5 in a tough encounter. Burkina Faso played 1-1 with Junior Taranga Lions of Senegal before the Lions kicked them out into the Losers’ Match category with a 5-4 penalty victory.
Both teams had been champions before. The Eagles of Mali were Champions in 2015 at Niger Republic where she spanked South Africa 2-0 and at Gabon 2017 where Ghana was beaten 1-0; Won Silver Botswana 1997 when she lost to Egypt 0-1; won Bronze twice in 1999 at Guinea when she defeated Cameroon 1-0 and at Seychelles 2001 but placed 4th while hosting in 1995 when she lost 1-2 to Guinea.
Burkina Faso won once at Rwanda 2011 beating Rwanda 2-1. She lost to Nigeria 1-3 at Seychelles in 2001 in the finals; also in the finals at Guinea 1999 when she lost to Ghana 1-3; and won the Bronze in Algeria in 2009 beating Malawi 2-0.
The grand finale is at the Nelson Mandela Stadium tomorrow Friday at 2200 hours Nigerian time. It will be between two Lions, the Taranga Lions of Senegal, West Africa and the Atlas Lions of Morocco North Africa.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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