The Sunday News
ERRORS proved costly for the Ivory Coast as they lost their World Cup warm-up to Bosnia in St Louis on Friday, coach Sabri Lamouchi said.
“It was logical that we lost because we made a lot more mistakes than our opponent,” he said at the post-match news conference following the 2-1 loss in the first of two friendly matches in the United States.
“You cannot win playing like we did. There were too many poor decisions in the first half. We had a slight improvement in the second half but we were not able to really trouble our opponent. But there are positives to take out of the game, like being able to give playing time to players who don’t usually get a chance.”
Lamouchi named a largely experimental line-up, handing debuts to goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo and midfielder Ismael Diomande, and leaving out many of his expected first choice players.
Edin Dzeko scored twice for Bosnia before Didier Drogba, who came on as a substitute in his 100th international match, rocketed in a free kick from the edge of the Bosnian penalty area for a late consolation goal for the Africans.
The Ivorians play El Salvador on Wednesday in Dallas, where they have been preparing over the last week for the tournament in Brazil.
“The next friendly against El Salvador will be a chance to see better the side we reckon will start our first game against Japan,” Lamouchi added.
They also meet Colombia and Greece in Group C. — Reuters.
