No magic this time round for Senegal team

OSAKA, June 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Under the motto of “cut the magic, it’s talent that counts”, Senegal intend to let their feet do the talking when they take on Turkey in the quarter-final nobody predicted at the World Cup in Osaka on Saturday, June 22.

The Lions of Teranga have the chance to write a page of World Cup history as no African side has ever reached the semi-finals. Cameroon , in 1990, were the only other African team to reach the last eight, where they fell to England , Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

And although black magic may not be entirely unknown back home, the team say they are too good to resort to such things when it comes to football.

Metsu meanwhile is at pains to explain that his players are not invoking witchdoctors or any other skullduggery against the Turks.

“Maybe two or three are susceptible to that kind of thing - but the rest just treat it as a joke,” he says.

Metsu, who calls himself a white man with the heart of a Negro, has told the team that their talent is all they need to rely on and that spiritualism and witchcraft will not win tournaments, AFP reported.

“Otherwise we’d have won the African Nations Cup and the World Cup ages ago,” he smiles.

He recalled earlier this week how he had once seen an assistant sprinkle water on the pitch before a match in Egypt .

“I told him I didn’t want to see that again. I told him ‘with your nonsense we'll lose.’ And we lost 1-0,” he recalls.

Skipper Aliou Cisse explains that “80 percent of us don’t know about witchdoctors and the like,” while several of the squad, such as Sylvain Ndiaye and Habib Beye, are French-born.

“Imagine their reaction if we killed a chicken in the dressing room before the match,” joked Cisse.

His own prediction before the event was that the team would acquit itself well.

“We were confident before the match with France, especially our keeper Tony Sylva and striker El Hadji Diouf.”

Diouf “forsaw problems with the French,” explained Cisse. But as regards the Turks he insists there is only one forecast to be made.

“We are going to win, though it will be a tough game.”

Senegal expect to be at full strength for their encounter and having seen off France and Sweden their confidence is understandably sky-high.

Omar Daf, Ferdinand Coly, Cisse and Malick Diop are carrying minor knocks but are all expected to be ready.

However, Metsu, perhaps trying a little skullduggery of his own, said Wednesday, June 19, he was worried his giant killers might lack a little freshness.

“For the first time I feel we are having a few difficulties in recuperating. That’s the first time since the event started - and the players are in such demand.”

 He is too, having revealed that two unnamed national sides are after his services - as well as several clubs.

Magic is widely spread in Senegal, though it is an Islamic country and according to Islamic regulations, magic is forbidden.

In Islam, practicing magic makes one’s prayers unaccepted for forty days, and believing in what magicians or sorcerers say renders one a disbeliever.

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