Despite being out of contention for the 2022 Cosafa U/20 trophy, Namibia’s Young Warriors coach James Britz has said their plan is to beat Malawi in today’s final group match and bow out of the regional tournament with a decent measure of pride.
The Young Warriors blew their chances of progressing to the next round of this year’s Cosafa U/20 Cup when they lost their opening match 1-0 to the Comoros, followed by a 2-5 humiliating defeat to regional rivals South Africa on Monday.
Monday’s defeat to South Africa crashed Namibia’s hopes of reaching the next round and also technically marked their exit from the tournament; only left with today’s final Group C clash against Malawi.
Whatever result the Young Warriors might manage to scrap against Malawi today, will not make any difference as far as their fate at the competition is concerned, but coach Britz is determined to make the most of today’s match as they hope to bow out with their heads held high.
“We are disappointed by our last two games, but we have to remain positive heading into our last encounter against Malawi and go for a win. The way things went is not how we expected but we have to take the results and move forward,” he said.
“Our aim now is to end on a good note, which is to at least win against Malawi and bow out with pride as a nation. We will go out there and play for our country hoping to close this chapter with a win at least.”
“Overall, the team showed great passion and the players have the eagerness to win but those small mistakes we made cost us. We will go back and work on the mistakes and try to improve. We know where we went wrong and we will have to fix those mistakes.”
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na