The Brave Warriors fell short of lifting the 2024 Cosafa tournament trophy after a 5-0 drubbing against a marauding Angolan side, but Namibians should take away the positives and be proud of coach Collin Benjamin and his charges.
This was the standout message from Angola’s head coach Pedro Gonçalves, who after Sunday’s final showered praised on his Namibian counterpart for guiding the Brave Warriors to the final of one of Africa’s most competitive regional tournaments.
“The best two teams [Namibia and Angola] made it to the final. I know it is unusual to have a scoreline like this one [5-0] in such a big final, but Namibia has a strong team, and one could see that they worked very hard to reach the final. So, congratulations to my colleague, Collin, and his boys for reaching the final. He is a visionary. Namibians should be proud of them, and support them all the way from here,” he said.
The 48-year-old Gonçalves, who in 2018 won the Cosafa U/17 Cup with Angola and also helped that country qualify to its first-ever U/17 Fifa World Cup that same year, said that achieving success at regional level is not an overnight process.
Therefore, Collin and the Warriors must be fully-supported back home.
“So, credit to my colleague, who is doing a great job in Namibia. I believe there is so much good happening there,” he added.
With Sunday’s win over Namibia, Gonçalves led Angola to its first Cosafa Cup triumph in 20 years at senior level, and also became the country’s longest-winning coach in the history of the team with 24 victories, including the 5-0 thrashing of Namibia in the final.
Regional fortress
The Brave Warriors have in recent years remained largely competitive in the Cosafa tournament – from the heady heights attained in 1997 and 1999 when they were tournament runners-up to 1998 and 2008 when they shocked African football by reaching the African Nations Cup finals.
They finally won the regional crown in 2015, as then head coach Ricardo Mannetti’s side made a thrilling run to the final.
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 did, however, go on to claim the Plate competition as they defeated Zambia 1-0 in the 2016 final.
The Brave Warriors reached the Plate final again the following year, but this time lost 1-0 to South Africa.
They were then beaten heavily 4-1 by the same opposition in the Plate semifinals 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.
– ohembapu@nepc.com.na