Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek-With just a few hours left before Namibia’s Brave Warriors confront hosts South Africa in the final of the Cosafa Castle Cup Plate competition today at the Moruleng Stadium in Rustenburg (16h00), coach Ricardo Mannetti and his charges have already unleashed their war chest and are vying for the South Africans’ jugular.
Namibia, who are the reigning champions of the Cosafa Cup Plate competition, are beating the war drums in anticipation of today’s clash against their regional rivals and if Mannetti’s recent cautionary salvo is anything to go by, then the South Africans will today be in for some long ninety minutes.
After Tuesday’s hard-fought 1-0 semi-final victory over Swaziland, Mannetti said they will today use the same paintbrush against South Africa, the very same one used in their victory over the Swazis this week, which was characterised by colours of tenacity, aggression, teamwork and more importantly, the desire to win at all costs.
Reading from their performance against Swaziland, the Brave Warriors have clearly quelled any suggestions that they will adopt a defensive approach when they confront Bafana Bafana as they seek to retain the plate trophy they won last year at home, when they defeated Zambia 1-0 in the final.
Speaking to Nampa from their base in Rustenburg, Brave Warriors captain Ronald ‘Stigga’ Ketjijere said as much as the team did not win their first match, their attitude towards the tournament has changed.
Ketjijere said they started slow and ended up losing to Lesotho on penalties last weekend but managed to bounce back on Tuesday by beating Swaziland in the Plate semi-finals to reach today’s final.
Touching on today’s final against South Africa, Ketjijere said: “It all goes down to how we approach the game; our attitude must be positive. Bafana Bafana can be beaten, especially with the squad they have, which is not their strongest, so we stand a chance of beating them.”
Meanwhile, regional heavyweights Zambia and Zimbabwe will go up against each other in Sunday’s Cosafa Castle Cup final after both turned in a show of force to dispatch their semi-final opponents on Wednesday.
Zambia were a goal down early against Tanzania but stormed through to their eighth final with a 4-2 win, while Zimbabwe shrugged off the fatigue of five games in nine days to dispatch Lesotho 4-3.