WINDHOEK – Inspired by an encouraging vociferous crowed, Black Africa gave South African giants Kaizer Chiefs a decent run for their money when they matched the visitors in all departments in their CAF Champions League 2nd leg match, which however ended in a 1-all draw at a packed-to-the-rafters Windhoek Independence Stadium on Saturday night.
Although Chiefs progressed to the next phase of the competition via a 4-1 victory on aggregate after they had beaten BA 3-0 in the first leg played a week ago in Johannesburg, the 2nd leg was another kettle of fish as BA put up one of their best performances, particularly in the second half.
Chiefs started on a high note with some impressive onslaughts, which were coupled with stringing together well engineered passes between Kingston Nkatha, Siyagonga Nkosi and George Maluleka but it was after the 11th minute that the visitors broke the deadlock when Kingston Nkatha scored from a glancing header to give Chiefs the lead.
But with the vocal crowd fully behind them, the home side kept marching on despite the deficit as the likes of Willy Stephanus, Brian Bantam and Klaas Blom showed some individual brilliance which created a few chances upfront but the much needed goal remained elusive, finishing the opening half trailing 1-0.
In the second half, coach Brian Isaacs made some tactical changes to his side which saw Stephanus now operating from the middle of the park instead of the wing. The move worked perfectly as the young midfielder continued his combinations with Bantam which saw striker Roger Katjiteo misfiring a few decent chances that could have seen them level the score.
But on 73 minutes, Stephanus again took the bull by the horns as he pounced on a poor clearance by the Chiefs defence and he slipped through the same defence with fine trickery to finish off a well taken goal from the left, to send thousands of BA supporters into wild celebrations, including Prime Minister Hage Geingob who was also in attendance. BA 1-1 Chiefs.
Black Africa substitute Riaan Eugene had a chance to give the home side the lead but Chiefs keeper Reyaard Pieterse denied him the chance. The entertaining game ended in a one-all draw and Chiefs progressed to the next round.
Meanwhile, another Namibian side African Stars also bowed out of the CAF Confederation Cup after losing 3-0 to Petro Atletico de Luanda in Angola yesterday. Stars defeated the Angolan outfit 2-0 in the 1st leg at the Sam Nujoma Stadium last weekend but however failed to keep a clean sheet in their 2nd leg.
By Otniel Hembapu