Former African U-17 champion and ex-vice captain of that Gambian team, Abdoulie Bakary Njie, has lifted the lid on the mystery surrounding Momodou Ceesay’s crucial penalty miss at the World Championship in Peru 2005.
With Gambia trailing Netherlands 2-0 in the third and final group stage match in its first ever world cup appearance at any level and starring elimination in the face, but needed only a goal to advance, the Baby Scorpions were awarded a penalty with just 10 minutes remaining.
Momodou Ceesay had been instrumental in winning the penalty when his pass put Sanna Nyassi clean through on goal. Nyassi’s shot was pushed out by the keeper Tim Krul, and as Alagie Ngum latched on to the rebound, he was brought down by Dutch substitute Erik Pieters.
The Gambia’s choice for the resulting penalty Ceesay, instead of regular taker Ousman Jallow, who had scored from the spot in both previous games, at the time shocked many people. Ceesay struck his shot wide of the keeper’s right-hand post, and the Baby Scorpions crashed out.
Ceesay, who had been Gambia’s most impressive player in the tournament, turned from hero to villain as his miss condemned the West Africans to an early elimination. Coupled with Brazil’s 6-0 thrashing of Qatar, Gambia’s defeat left them and Brazilians and the Dutch leveled on six points, but missed out on goal difference.
The circumstances surrounding Ceesay’s decision to take the kick weren’t clear and at the time, the English-speaking commentator for the game alleged that his performances at the tournament might have gone into his head while the British broadcaster, the BBC, said in its match report that the former Wallidan striker took the kick apparently against the orders of Coach Fred Osam Duodu.
This incident happened nearly twelve years ago and for the first time, an independent witness to the entire episode has had his take on it. Njie, who played all five games as The Gambia won the African championship in Banjul, explained that Jallow had mixed feeling which prompted Ceesay to step up.
“At the time, we had five penalty takers in Ousman Jallow, Momodou Ceesay, Alagie Amadou Ngum, Mandu Bojang and Abdoulie Mansally in that order. Ous was uncomfortable and wasn’t feeling right so it was obvious that since Zic was the second choice, he had to step in,” he told Observer Sports.
“Nobody thought he was going to miss that because he had been scoring penalties in the past but Zico did his best and unfortunately it didn’t go in and we were disappointed to have been knocked out.”
After the early exit in that tournament The Gambia hit with storm with 3-1 wins over the defending champions and favourites Brazil as well as Qatar, there was a commission of enquiry set up back home culminating in the unceremonious exit of Coach Osam Duodu.
There were even claims of a conspiracy against the Ghanaian by some powerbrokers in the domestic game and though Njie and Jallow as the two captains of the team testified before the commission, the former said the situation could’ve been handled better.
“Ous and I, as the two captains, testified but aside what had happened on the pitch, we couldn’t tell the commission anything because we didn’t know anything more than that. Everything was fine at the camp and we were not aware of any abnormalities,” Njie further told Observer Sports.
Njie added that Osam should’ve stayed at the time to ensure that he continued what he had started by graduating with the same group of players to the senior team level.
Abdoulie Bakary Njie, who holds the distinction as the only Gambian to have played with three generations of U-17 teams, was speaking in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer in Rabat, Morocco, where he accompanied the U-20 team as its goalkeeper trainer.
He talked about a wide range of issues including the art of goalkeeping. Read our subsequent editions for the full interview.
by Baboucarr Camara
in Rabat, Morocco