Brave Warriors head coach Collin Benjamin has expressed satisfaction with the manner in which his charges are smoothly finding combinations, working as a unit and learning from each other, saying he is confident they will be ready to face Madagascar tomorrow.
Namibia will kick off their 2022 Cosafa Cup campaign with a quarterfinal clash against the Barea of Madagascar at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban.
The Brave Warriors recently played a friendly match against South African outfit Sekhukhune United, which served as final preparation ahead the pivotal encounter against the islanders. The Sekhukhune United clash ended in a 1-all draw, but Benjamin is happy with how the boys generally came to the party.
“I must say I’m really happy with how the boys are finding combinations, working together and playing as a unit. With the Sekhukhune friendly, we had another opportunity to further assess the boys, to also see which combinations are working and which ones need touch-ups. The boys are finding the combinations very well and that shows that we are headed in the right direction. But I must admit that there are areas we still need to improve on, especially making sure we don’t make unwanted mistakes and so forth,” said Benjamin.
Touching on tomorrow’s opponents, the former German Bundesliga giants Hamburger SV midfielder said they will be ready to stretch Madagascar to the limit, adding that his charges are hungry to make the country proud.
“The boys have been showing their hunger to play and one can say they are ready. The senior guys are working well with their juniors and that’s what we want to see. So, I’m confident that going into Tuesday’s match against an improved Madagascar side, we will do things right to get the desired result. We have a few players with knocks (injuries), such as our captain Dynamo Fredericks, but the medical staff are assessing him and working against the clock to ensure he comes back to help the team.”
Namibia won the regional cup in 2015 when then coach Ricardo Mannetti’s side made a thrilling run to the final, and were worthy winners. They played six games in all, building momentum along the way before being crowned champions after beating Mozambique 2-0 in the final.
They had hoped to win back-to-back titles in 2016, but lost in the quarterfinals to Botswana on penalties after a 1-1 draw. They, however, went on to claim the Plate competition as they defeated Zambia 1-0.
The Brave Warriors reached the Plate final again the following year, but this time lost 0-1 to South Africa, and were then beaten heavily with a 4-1 score line by the same opposition in the Plate semi-finals in 2018.
They started in the group stages in 2019, but could not advance to the quarterfinals, despite winning two of their three pool games, which is usually enough. In 2008, Namibia broke a run of seven first-round exits in the Cosafa Cup – when they lost to Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Eswatini, Angola and Botswana three times – as they progressed to the quarterfinals before losing out to a South African President’s XI.
– ohembapu@nepc.com.na