By Staff Reporter
Eight top women’s football league teams will gather at the TransNamib field tomorrow for the National Women’s Championships in which top-notch football has been promised.
The women’s football leagues in the four regions of Kavango, Karas, Kunene and Khomas concluded recently and the top two teams from each of the regions will battle it out for the grand prize of N$20 000 plus the pride of women dominance. All four leagues were summed up in style, with some teams missing out the national championships on goal difference. The Khomas Region will be represented by champions Okahandja Beauties and runners-up Rehoboth Queens.
National top goal-scorer and Brave Gladiator, Stella Williams of Okahandja Beauties, will be the talking point of the championship decider. She scored 23 goals this season besides her immense contribution in the national women’s team, The Brave Gladiators.
The Beauties will start the tournament with a tricky tie against the Karas regional envoy, Butcher Girls. Butcher Girls finished their season second with 27 points, three less than Karas champions, Just Ladies. The Karas Region provided the best competition this season with Mountain Stars and The V/Mighty also finishing their games with 27 points but missed qualification for the National Championship due to an inferior goal difference.
Mountain Stars’ Justine Coleman is the country’s second top goal-scorer with 20 goals in 12 matches, as compared to Williams who played 16 matches.
Just Ladies, the Karas champions, will play free-scoring Rehoboth Queens in a potential thriller that might turn out to be the best match of the morning.
From Kavango are champions, Bad Girls, who have brought their runners-up, Sarusungu Beauties, with them. Bad Girls finished their league on 40 points, two above Sarusungu Beauties and will play Butcher Girls, while Sarusungu meets Beauty Eagles, champions of the Kunene Region.
Welwitschia Gladiators, who finished the Kunene season on 20 points in 8 matches just like the champions, Beauty Eagles, will face Bad Girls in the first match of the day. Bad Girls, Susan Hikerwa, has been exciting to watch in her region, scoring 19 goals for the Bad Girls. The eight teams have been put in two groups of four where the team with the most points will proceed to the semi-finals which are to be played on Sunday morning. After their first matches, the eight teams will have to play two more matches to firmly determine their groups, before the semis.
Jackey Gertze, Director of Namibian Women’s Football, said after the tournament a shadow team of the Brave Gladiators will be announced at the match venue. Namibia has the second best national women’s soccer team in southern Africa after losing the regional Cosafa finals to South Africa last year.
There has been no mention of how the women’s football desk will rope in some of the stars of clubs like Mountain Stars who failed to make it to the National championships.
However, according to Gertze, next year the National championships will have two more regions included in the epic battle of women’s football dominance in the country. The Caprivi and the Oshana Regions have been registered by the NFA Women’s desk and will have their top two teams in the 2008 championships.
Said Gertze, “NFA through Acting Secretary-General Barry Rukoro has managed to meet its goal and promise of delivering results in women’s football. Now we have 39 women’s football clubs in the country without including the ones from the incoming regions. The winners and the runners-up of this year’s championships will automatically receive byes to be part of next year’s National Championships. So it is more than money – but also pride and fame – for the teams and players.”
According to Gertze, Rukoro, although in acting capacity, had made it possible with the five months he has been in office for women’s football committees to be considered in the various regions. With six regions already confirmed as participants in women’s football, Gertze said it is not long before the remaining seven regions are swallowed by the spirit of women’s football, which is developing tremendously. The Brave Gladiators have been allowed to compete in the Under-17 men’s regional tournament currently underway in the country.