This Friday, August 26 is the big day for Desagana Diop, who is playing his first official as coach of the Basketball Lions. The former resident of the prestigious American NBA leads his foals against Sudan, for the start of the 4th African window of the 2023 World Cup qualifiers.
Appointed to replace Boniface Ndong, after having been the latter’s assistant, Desagana has formed a new group around Gorgui Sy Dieng, one of his cadets in the NBA and now his captain, for a satisfactory preparation.
Which was marked by 3 victories in as many matches, against Cape Verde, twice in Dakar, and Egypt in Tunisia. The coach also said satisfaction to the Stades newspaper, although acknowledging the “things to rectify and improve”.
“I’m happy with the progress of the team, but as I told the players, we can still reach a higher level and we will try to reach it before our first game”still insisted the former Dallas Mavericks basketball player.
“We are on a mission”
After having retained his group of 12 and before descending on the Monastir field this Friday at 9:30 p.m., Desagana Diop did not take gloves to remind his players of the objective. He thus expressed himself, according to Stades, “we have a mission, we want to be successful and win games to qualify for the next FIBA World Cup. We deserve our place, it’s up to us to prove it. We have no other options but to win« .
The Lions calendar
Friday August 26, 2022. 9:30 p.m.: Senegal-South Sudan
Saturday August 27, 2022. 6:30 p.m.: Tunisia-Senegal
Sunday August 28, 2022. 3:30 p.m.: Senegal-Cameroon
