After edging African football giant Tunisia 1-0 in September, the Lone Star had a disappointing 1-1 draw at home with Guinea-Bissau on October 8, in her opening match of the World Cup Qualifiers. The team recovered on time and responded with a historic 3-1 victory away at Guinea-Bissau five days later to move to the second round of the competition.

And, with Liberia’s progression to next round of the world cup qualifiers, SD Ponferradina striker William Jebor is hopeful they can maintain their form and instill fear in Cote d’Ivoire.

“You don’t want to go into games and teams enjoy playing against you,” the 24-year-old striker said.

“You want teams to look at Liberia and think, ‘We know we have a tough game’,” he said. “It is going to be physically hard against them; we are going to have to defend and we are going to have to be good on the ball to keep the ball.”

James Debbah’s men have started finding their stride, with Tuesday’s 3-1 thrashing of Guinea-Bissau. Fans are growing confident that the Lone Star can cause an upset in its next game against the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire. The victory now means that after four matches under Debbah as the coach, Liberia has had two wins, a draw, and a loss.

The excellent performance has resulted in the Lone Star’s leap in the FIFA world ranking, moving into the top 100. Liberia is now ranked at 95, the highest since the country ranked at 88 in 2002.

Featured photo by T. Kla Wesley Jr.