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Senegal
Cut the Magic, Let Their Feet Do the Talking
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| No
magic this time round for Senegal team
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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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