Annor Walker, the head coach of the Black Galaxies, feels that suffering a loss in the opening game of a tournament is not unheard of in the history of football.
Annor Walker made these comments after his team suffered an unexpected loss to Madagascar by the score of 2-1 in their opening match of the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) on Sunday at the Chahid Hamlaoui Stadium in Constantine. Walker was speaking after the match. Madagascar defeated his team.
As a result of goals scored by Madagascar's Solomampionona Razafindranaivo and Olivier Randriatsiferana, as well as a consolation goal scored by Augustine Agyapong, the two-time CHAN runners-up opened their campaign with a disappointing loss. However, the coach stated that the team's performance can be improved moving forward.
“I feel as though my players let me down in the first half, but I just chalk it up to being one of those things that happens in football.” “We were well prepared for this game, but little mistakes cost us the game,” remarked a despondent Walker. “We are quite disappointed.”
“Football is full of surprises like that.” It frequently occurs in events in which strong teams suffer early-round defeats. Even though we were defeated, we are by no means out of the race at this point.
Annor Walker, when asked where he believes his squad needs to improve, the head coach responded by saying that he still has to review the game with his technical staff in order to fully analyze where things may have gone wrong in their devastating loss.
“Madagascar played effectively for most of the first half, but we were unable to find our normal rhythm as well. Aside from that, I didn't notice anything that distinguished them from others. They were doing a good job of keeping possession of the ball, but I think we could have done better ourselves.
These are the things we will need to examine and fix before our next game on Thursday. The coach came to the following conclusion: “I still need to analyze the game and make a good judgment as to where exactly we went wrong and how it has to be addressed.”
On Thursday, the Black Galaxies will play Sudan at the same site, and they will be looking to make amends and get a victory in order to keep themselves in the running for a spot in the knockout stage.
