The horn times news letter-June 10 2012
by Getahune Bekele

The sharp horned Walias gored CAR in the heart

Affectionately called by their die-hard supporters the Walias, or famously known as the black lions of Abyssinia, the Ethiopian national soccer team players are on the rise.

On Sunday 10 June 2012, the team once again, lifted the dark cloud from the stressed nation of 80 million to let the rays of hope in, with a 2-0 win against the Central African Republic in Addis Ababa-Ethiopia.

As South Africa stretched its winless streak to eight matches with a dull 1-1 draw away in Botswana on Saturday, the Walias are now the pace setters, amassing 4 points followed by CAR with 3 points.

The presence of more than 5 thousand heavily armed federal police members didn’t dampen the electric atmosphere in the stadium. The more than 30 thousand crowd, as usual, jeered the ethnocentric national anthem and greeted the players with a rousing chorus of “sanfeligachew haya ametachew”, which means…

“For 20 years they ruled us by force”… in reference to the brutal and merciless rule of PM leggese Zenawi of Tigre.

Some spectators even openly and defiantly sang the forbidden “Ethiopia our fortress “.

The game was a pure master class.

Egypt based rising star Saladin Said again showed the world that he is a defenders’ worst nightmare and without any shadow of a doubt, the best in Africa.

He was unstoppable, scoring once in each half to secure all 3 points for his country.

However, for Sewnet Bishaw, the caretaker coach,(pictured) it is back to the drawing board to fix some glaring shortcomings particularly in the goal-keeping department.

Bassa must work on his ball distribution and agility to offer the much-needed assuredness between the posts to his equally inexperienced but improving young defenders.