Orange Sierra Leone football team was over the weekend humbled by two goals to one by the visiting ASC Sonatel team from Senegal in a friendly match played at the Hill Station Football Field, west of Freetown.
The two sides which met for the first and the match, according to authorities of the two counterpart companies, was played to engender further collaboration and cooperation between the two companies.
Head of Sonatel Football Association, Ibrahim Seyie, told this medium ahead of the match in Freetown that they have a very strong football culture at Sonatel ASC and that they are investing huge resources and time for the game of football which, according to him, they are using to motivate their over five hundred personnel working for the company.
He says they are touring all the nineteen (19) countries where they have branches across the world.
The highly jam-packed game saw a very tough encounter between the two sides in the first twenty minutes of the game.
The visitors who were very determined to win in Freetown had very tactical dribbles which weighed on the hosts before they could drive through their curtain raiser.
A very hurriedly arranged Orange side was also very much defensive enough to resist their visitors by putting up a very brilliant display leading them to secure an equalizer later at the end of the first half.
The togetherness, experience and maturity of the visiting side who had more taller and flexible players with the much needed endurance, pushed the defense of Orange Sierra Leone to secure the winning goal in the last minutes of the match to win the first leg of the match.
Senior officials of Orange Sierra Leone who spoke to this medium after the match hailed their boys for putting what they referred to as a ‘brave performance’ against a well prepared visitors’ side.
They indicated that they hope to build on this experience with a view to win the second leg in Senegal.
Officials of both companies say Orange Sierra Leone is expected to play a return leg in Senegal as a way of reciprocating the visit.
