… out to improve away record
Windhoek
The last group of the Brave Warriors’ foreign-based players yesterday touched down in Banjul, Gambia, where the team hosted their first official training session in preparation for Friday’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier preliminary round clash against the Scorpions of Gambia.
The Namibia Football Association (NFA) media officer Dan Kamati yesterday confirmed the team’s safe arrival in the capital of the west African country, saying the first training session went well and coach Ricardo Mannettti was impressed with the players’ overall attitude.
“The first group of players already arrived in Gambia on Sunday, with the Botswana and South Africa-based players only joining the rest of the team today. Despite the extreme heat, the training session went well and no injuries were sustained, so everything is all good,” said Kamati.
Mannetti and his charges will hold daily training sessions for the entire week leading up to Friday’s match, with the hope that the players will quickly adjust to the extreme heat of west Africa.
Namibia was one of the 26 lowly ranked teams in Africa that went into the first round of draws, which will be played in two-legged home and away ties. The highly ranked 27 African nations received a bye in the first round and will only start getting active in the second round. That means there will be some 40 teams who will also play two-legged home and away ties.
The 20 winners from the second round will be drawn in five groups of four nations, playing home and away. The respective group winners will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Statistically, Namibia and Gambia have only clashed twice before, in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, with Gambia winning the first encounter by 3-1 in Banjul on September 4 2010 and again exactly a year later on September 3, 2011 Namibia defeated Gambia 1-0 in Windhoek.
The World Cup qualifying match will be their third and perhaps most important encounter as both sides have never qualified for the finals of the world’s biggest football showpiece.