MONROVIA — Under-fire Lone Star Coach, Mario Marinica, revealed that he had previously resigned from his position but was called back by the Liberia Football Association (LFA).
Marinica made the statement while responding to a question about whether he would step down following Liberia’s 2-1 home defeat to Equatorial Guinea on Monday, October 14, at the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sports Complex.
“I resigned before; they called me back. At the end of the day, in football, things happen,” Marinica said.
With three straight defeats ending Liberia’s hopes of qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, the 59-year-old coach said it is now up to the LFA to decide his future.
“Now, the LFA should probably say, ‘Well, I am not the right person,’ and maybe they’ll get someone better to make a change. I think it’s reasonable because there’s too much negativity. Everyone is looking to be very negative,” Marinica explained.
He continued, “We really want to progress. Sometimes progress is a painful road. Sometimes you have to go down in order to get up. When we are up, you don’t like it. When we are down, you don’t like it either. We try to play football. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I expect that. So that’s life. There was life before Mario, and there will be life after Mario.”
Equatorial Guinea secured victory through Dorian Hazan, who scored in the 94th minute of added time. An unmarked Hazan found the net after Liberia’s goalkeeper, Abdullai Koulibaly, and his defense failed to clear Equatorial Guinea’s last attack.
Earlier, Luis Nlavo opened the scoring for Equatorial Guinea in the first 20 minutes, capitalizing on a mistake by Koulibaly, whose clearance was blocked into the net by Nlavo.
Liberia leveled the match eight minutes into the second half when substitute William Gibson received an excellent pass from Devine Teah and struck a clean shot into the net.
Despite several attempts, the Lone Star couldn’t secure a win, and they were left frustrated by the late goal in extra time.
This defeat marks Liberia’s continued struggle at the SKD, where they have not won a match since 2019, with five losses and a draw in that period.
Liberia remains at the bottom of their group with just one point from four matches. Equatorial Guinea, now on seven points, only needs to avoid defeat against either Algeria or Togo to qualify. Algeria, with 12 points and a perfect record, has already booked their place in the tournament.
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