Namibian football pundits and the general public have taken to various public platforms to praise and pay tribute to Brave Warriors head coach Collin Benjamin.
His technical team and the players bravely put up a mammoth fight to bring the 2022 Cosafa Cup silver medal home.
Namibia’s senior national football team dominated the lion’s share of Sunday night’s Cosafa Cup final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, but failed to capitalise on their many goalscoring opportunities as they narrowly went down 1-0 to the resilient Chipolopolo of Zambia.
With the win, Chipolopolo claimed their sixth Cosafa Cup title and also equal Zimbabwe’s record of six regional titles, thanks to an extra-time effort by Albert Kangwanda, whose 35-yard shot rebounded off the post and onto Namibia’s goalkeeper Edward Maova before finding its way into the net for an unfortunate own goal.
The outcome denied the Brave Warriors a second regional title, having first won it in 2015 under former gaffer Ricardo Mannetti. This was in contrast to Zambia, who on Sunday night secured their second Cosafa title in the three latest appearances, with the last time being 2019.
But despite narrowly missing out on the regional title, local football pundits are convinced about the future, and were particularly impressed with the Brave Warriors’ never-say-die attitude and courage to hold a well-oiled Zambian side tightly against the wall until the very last minute of an otherwise thrilling final.
Former Brave Gladiators head coach Woody Jacobs was amongst the first to hail the Brave Warriors for an outstanding overall performance that saw them beating Madagascar in the quarterfinal and Mozambique in the semifinal on their way to the final. Jacobs is specifically impressed with the young players in the current setup, saying they constantly demonstrated their ability to learn from their more experienced seniors, and also showed their hunger to win crucial matches at the region’s biggest football showpiece.
“I am not too surprised by the team’s overall performance because there were a lot of good and highly-talented players who were eager to showcase their talents. But what impressed me the most are the youngsters who played their hearts out for the team and for the country. I must mention that youngsters like striker Bethuel Muzeu and Prins Tjueza and all others really showed they do indeed deserve a place in the team. My wish now is seeing them all play regular at club level, and I hope the local leagues will resume very soon,” said Jacobs.
“In fact, we could have won that tournament had we had an active local premier league. So, this was again a reminder that local football should start. That’s the only way that we can have players that can win games and compete like they did. But otherwise, I’m truly happy with the work of the coaches and the players.”
Meanwhile, national U/20 men’s coach James Britz echoed Jacobs’ sentiments, saying reaching the Cosafa final was in itself a huge achievement for a country that does not have an active league. He added that the team and the technical staff proved that the future of Namibian football looks bright and with enough time and resources, the Brave Warriors will very soon dominate the region once again.
“The team did extremely well, especially reaching the final while facing very difficult circumstances. That alone is a big milestone and it shows what we are capable of doing if local talent is given enough exposure at the highest level. With that superb Cosafa Cup performance, my wish is that the team would compete in the African Nations Championship (Chan) but unfortunately, we don’t have the resources for that. It would have been another great opportunity and ideal development platform for the coaches and players,” he said.
In term of Benjamin’s tactics, Britz said he believes the newly-appointed coach has a great plan for the team and he was impressed with the tactics employed.
“Every coach has a tactic for every game and Sunday’s one proved to have worked well for Namibia but unfortunately, we didn’t take our chances. I am impressed with Benjamin’s tactics as well; the way they took on the games. I think he has a great plan for the national team and all we can do is support him and his staff,” he added.
Namibia’s Edward Maova won the Golden Glove award as the best goalkeeper of the tournament, while Zambia’s Kelvin Kampamba was named Player of the Tournament. Eswatini forward Sabelo Ndzinisa won the Golden Boot after he scored three goals in the competition, while Botswana walked away with the Fair Play Award. The individual awards all carry a N$20 000 prize. Winners Zambia received N$500 000 in prize money to go with the coveted trophy, while runners-up Namibia took home N$250 000. Bronze medal winners Senegal earned N$150 000 and Mozambique pocketed N$100 000.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na