Confidence Musariri
Windhoek
The national soccer team go into battle in a typically biblical David versus Goliath battle tomorrow afternoon, only that this time Goliath is in David’s fortress.
The two-week honeymoon enjoyed after collecting maximum points against Libya, is over for the heroic Brave Warriors. The presence of an estimated 10 000-plus fanatical supporters of Namibia’s most loved team will add to the problems confronting DRC in this monumental return leg. And the visitors need not be pitied.
This is the best moment to beat DRC. A team in a state of disarray with financial troubles, with a coach who has lost interest, players who will only have less than four hours of practice and definitely jet-lagged, are all signs that Goliath is destined for beheading.
The Brave Warriors’ awe-inspiring recovery with ten men in the 3-2 loss against DRC is the best match Bamfuchile has ever watched since he took charge, he says. And that time, Collin Benjamin and Meraai Swartbooi were not around.
So dynamic is the partnering of Collin Benjamin and Meraai Swartbooi upfront, Benjamin and Swartbooi are like England’s partnering of Peter Crouch and Michael Owen in both pace and height. Their zooming cross-field passes coupled by touch-line raids of Oliver Risser are a marvel to watch.
The subject of the match, as has always been the case, is the Brave Warriors’ playmaker, Letu ‘Lua Lua’ Shatimuene. His boundless energy has become the country’s most remarkable marketing phenomenon as fans travel across the country just to get a glimpse of the attacking midfielder-cum-winger. Letu will come face to face with his role model, Lomana Lua Lua. Even with a slight injury picked up during training yesterday, the Namibian has promised to send Lomana back to Kinshasa with Letu’s surname.
The only weapon to be missed in David’s hand is prodigal son, Sidney Plaatjies, who is out of the match due to unexpected family bereavement.
Plaatjies’ dead-ball deliveries and expert precision will be sadly missed. He is the scorer of Namibia’s second goal in the first leg against DRC.
Only the next 90 minutes of tomorrow will tell if this is the real hurrah or the start of a most unexpected trip to Ghana. Anything else will most certainly signal the end of Captain Robert Nauseb, defence pillar Michael Pienaar and Colleen Benjamin’s careers with the national team. It will be their last home match, as the next CAF home matches will start in September 2009.
However, DRC without Shabane Nonda and with a disgruntled coach are still hazardous. The squad boasts of players mainly from TP Mazembe, the DRC club giants who have a long history in the game and have twice the Club champions league.
Mputu Mpungu and Mputu Mabi are the deadliest and are considered sharper than Lua Lua. Mabi is the leading African scorer in the 2007 African Champions League club competition with ten goals. But Namibia has nothing to fear as Gotlieb Nakuta and Hartman Toromba have a divine calling of shutting such men out of the game.
Bamfuchile complained throughout the first legs that his defenders were committing high-school blunders, but since the start of the final march to Ghana in the return legs, the defence has not conceded a goal in a CAF competition. And neither has Namibia lost a CAF match at home.
Ben Bamfuchile is already looking ahead at how Namibia will go and fight for a draw in Ethiopia.
“In Ethiopia it will be a match of altitude. I will take a team that will not play against eleven men but that will fight the high altitude, and hopefully we will be on our way (to Ghana),” he said in an earlier discussion.
Namibia has to win and hope that Ethiopia lose to Libya in Tripoli, to turn the favour to the Brave Warriors in the last match, as Ethiopia will be slightly out of the race.
Tomorrow, my national team, our national team, your national team, will bring qualification for the African Cup of Nations in its radar. Besides the fans, God will be present whether asked or not. As the biblical proverb would read: dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.
Probable Line Up
1. Abisai Shiningayamwe, 2. Michael Pienaar, 3. Franklin April, 4. Hartman Toromba, 5. Gotlieb Nakuta, 6. Robert Nauseb, 7. Oliver Risser, 8. Letu Shatimuene, 9. Collin Benjamin, 10. Meraai Swartbooi, 11. Rudolph Bester.