Staff Reporter
Windhoek-The Young Warriors are set to play Botswana in the capital this Sunday for the second leg of their 2019 CAF Under-20 AFCON qualifiers, following a goalless draw in Gaborone in the first leg.
The team is expected to outperform themselves if they wish to proceed to the next stage of the competition.
Young Warriors coach Gerald Gunther says: “After a goal-less match in Gaborone, we came back to the drawing board to see what we can improve on. The boys did quite well and there were a few things we needed to work on especially being able to score goals and I think the preparation from the past weeks has enabled us to do just that. Botswana won’t be an easy team but I think the boys are ready; the couple of days left will be used to learn how to perfect scoring penalties in case we come to that during the match.”
He adds that the inclusion of twelve youth players in the previous Brave Warriors squad boosted the performance of most of the players because most of the players, if not all, looked up to the likes of Brave Warriors captain Ronald Ketjijere and playing alongside him was a dream come true to the boys.
The match will be played on Sunday at the Sam Nujoma Stadium with kick-off set for 15h00 with free entrance and the public is urged to come in numbers to support the boys.
The winner of Sunday’s tie will proceed to the second round to face Congo in May with the winner of that meeting advancing to the third and final round of the qualifiers where Senegal or Egypt waits in July. The final tournament will be hosted by Niger in 2019 with the four semi-finalists qualifying for the 2019 FIFA U20 World Cup, whose host will be announced next month.