ALLAN D’CRUZ
MARGAO: Guinea gave their best in the 90 minutes of the duel and yet were left dejected as the referee blew the final whistle and so were the 40-odd travelling spectators in the West-Upper Stand at the Nehru Stadium.
The Tuesday’s Group C clash witnessed 6,000 odd spectators at the Stadium, but the 40 fans from Guinea —known as ‘Gbingbinso’ — rocked the venue with their vociferous chants and drum beats which kept the stadium loud and cheerful throughout the match and also caught the eye of Goan spectators.
Gbingbinso, means ‘score a goal’, and the Guinea colts did score two goals on Tuesday, but were held to a 2-2 draw, courtesy to brilliant goalkeeping from Costa Rican Ricardo Montenegro, which denied the Guinean side three points.
However, it was improvised team performance, the fans were not content with the results.
“We are not so happy with the team performance. We had to win the game as we had so many opportunities. We just couldn’t get past the keeper,” lamented Lamine Diallo, Gbingbinso group member.
The energy level never drained out from the fans as they kept cheering the team even when the team was down twice. The fans have travelled down to India from Guinea to cheer their U-17 team and the trip has been fully sponsored by the Guinean Football Federation.
“We have travelled from Guinea and the federation has sponsored our trip. We have been travelling to other countries as well to back out team,” said Lamine Diallo.
The group formed more than 20-years back has more than 300 active members while only 40 get to travel to back the team. It is learnt that they have been travelling to European nations as well, whenever Guinea is playing international competitive matches.
