Kick-off -- Weah’s Liberia out to stop Mali dream

African Nations Cup hosts Mali carry a heavy burden of expectation into Saturday’s opening game of the three-week tournament but face a Liberian team who have been sidetracked by a pay dispute in the week leading up to the start of the continental championship.Saturday’s group A game at the newly-built March 26 stadium is expected to attract a capacity crowd of 60,000 as Mali make their first appearance at the finals since 1994 and the 16-nation tournament gets underway.The west African country, often described among the poorest in the world, has embarked on an ambitious programme of building for the 16-nation tournament with spending, on five new stadiums and other infra-structure, estimated by officials to be more than 100-million Euros.“An entire country has mobilised its energies despite skeptics who said they could not pull it off,” said CAF president Issa Hayatou ahead of the opening game.But now the focus switches to Mali’s footballers, who have mixed results in their pre-tournament preparations and little experience of playing at the highest level of the African game.“It’s a game we have to win for our supporters. Here has been massive interest and now that the games are here we have to concentrate on our task,” said Mali’s defender Adama Coulibaly, who plays at French league leaders Lens.Liberia’s preparations have been disruptive, first with a fight between the federation and team leader George Weah over the site of the pre-tournament training camp, then the withdrawal of captain Joe Nagbe, who wanted to stay with his club in Greece, and then a brief player strike this week.On Tuesday the team refused to train after demanding US$15,000 a man to participate in the tournament but resumed their training the next day and arrived in Mali on Wednesday night.Mali are unbeaten in six of their last games against Liberia and should win the game.Former World Footballer of the Year George Weah, whose is the focus of public attention on the eve of the game but Mali striker Mamadou Bagayoko said the ageing 35-year-old striker held little fear for him or his teammates. “We are not concentrating on Weah or the Liberian team. We’re going into the game with serenity and lots of enthusiasm. I think Liberia are a good team but so are we, even a good choice to win this cup,” said the Strasbourg striker.