{"id":52679,"date":"2024-02-21T17:30:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T17:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach"},"modified":"2024-02-21T19:00:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T19:00:15","slug":"i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach","title":{"rendered":"I didn\u2019t pay attention to U-20 Players Because I Wasn\u2019t U-20 Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>Monrovia, Liberia: Under-20 coach Kelvin Sebwe has provided justification for his decision to hold open tryouts for players to join Liberia\u2019s U-20 team.<\/p>\n

According to the former Liberian international midfielder, who was appointed by the LFA as head coach of the junior Lone Star team, conducting open tryouts was not inappropriate because he needed to identify talented players for the team.<\/p>\n

Despite some players from the U-17 team graduating to the U-20 team after Liberia\u2019s disqualification from the Nations Cup qualifiers due to age discrepancies, Kelvin stated that prior to assuming his role, he wasn\u2019t actively searching for U-20 players.<\/p>\n

In his debut game as head coach of the national team, Sebwe\u2019s men settled for a goalless draw with Sierra Leone at the Samuel K Doe Sports Complex, marking the first game of a four-match tournament between both countries.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media on Sunday, Kelvin Sebwe said, \u201cTwo weeks ago, I wasn\u2019t the national U-20 Coach, so when I attended games, I questioned why I should be looking for U-20 players. I had no reason to search for them as I was not coaching U-20.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time I was appointed U-20 coach, I already had an idea. I had observed the U-17 team play four games against Sierra Leone, so I knew the top players there. Additionally, I was aware of some players in the league. Therefore, we opened up the tryouts to identify more talent. There was no way I could just appoint players without paying attention to U-20 players because I wasn\u2019t the U-20 Coach at the time, which is fair enough,\u201d Sebwe explained.<\/p>\n

Sebwe\u2019s decision to hold open tryouts has been met with criticism from Liberians who believe he should have predominantly selected players from the U-17 team and added a few players from the Second and First division leagues who were making names for themselves and were under the appropriate age.<\/p>\n

Many fans believe that calling for open tryouts was a misuse of LFA resources, especially when there were over 20 players from the promising U-17 team, considered the future of Liberian football.<\/p>\n

Despite the underwhelming performance of the Lone Star U-20 team and the draw, Kelvin Sebwe expressed satisfaction with his team, emphasizing that he is building a team for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am impressed with the players today, considering the limited time we had to prepare for this game. This group played together as a team for the first time, with less than ten training sessions. What we witnessed today showed a lot of promise and skill. This is not just an event; it\u2019s a developmental process. If we continue like this, we will have a stronger Lone Star in the future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sebwe informed the media that he is hopeful of achieving a positive result in the second game scheduled for Tuesday, February 20th.<\/p>\n

He urged Liberians not to view the team\u2019s potential solely based on the four matches against Sierra Leone but to see it as a long-term project.<\/p>\n

The Lone Star coach disclosed that players who did not attend U-20 training despite performing well with their club teams will not be part of his setup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all need to be patient; we are building something here. Let\u2019s not be too quick to judge these young players. There were both good and bad aspects to their performance, but I am hopeful they will improve,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. Monrovia, Liberia: Under-20 coach Kelvin Sebwe has provided justification for his decision to hold open tryouts for players to join Liberia\u2019s U-20 team. According to the former Liberian international midfielder, who was appointed by the LFA as head coach of the junior Lone Star team, conducting open tryouts was not inappropriate because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":52678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-52679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nI didn\u2019t pay attention to U-20 Players Because I Wasn\u2019t U-20 Coach - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Monrovia, Liberia: Under-20 coach Kelvin Sebwe has provided justification for his decision to hold open tryouts for play ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I didn\u2019t pay attention to U-20 Players Because I Wasn\u2019t U-20 Coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Monrovia, Liberia: Under-20 coach Kelvin Sebwe has provided justification for his decision to hold open tryouts for play ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-21T17:30:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-21T19:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2024\/02\/sm_1708528574.689331.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"I didn\u2019t pay attention to U-20 Players Because I Wasn\u2019t U-20 Coach\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-21T17:30:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-21T19:00:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach\"},\"wordCount\":602,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2024\/02\/sm_1708528574.689331.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/i-didnt-pay-attention-to-u-20-players-because-i-wasnt-u-20-coach\",\"name\":\"I didn\u2019t pay attention to U-20 Players Because I Wasn\u2019t U-20 Coach - 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