Senior national football team coach Collin Benjamin says the Burundi game is done and dusted and the focus now should be building a team and exposing younger players to more international competitions.
Namibia lost 2-3 against Burundi in its last African Nations Cup qualifiers in Tanzania last week. With that defeat, the senior national men’s team will now have to wait for the match between Burundi and Cameroon in September to see if they will be competing at the nations cup finals in Ivory Coast.
In an interview with Nampa last week, Benjamin said conceding two early goals in that match derailed them from their official plan, but nothing can be done about it now.
“The match was lost, but the battle is not over yet. We will wait for the two teams to play each other. What is left is to rectify what happened in the match at the training ground as these are the same guys that won Cameroon, and one can’t, therefore, say they are not good enough just two months after winning against one of the best teams on the continent,” he said.
The coach added that some of the positives picked from the match are that the local-based players brought their part, but more needs to be done to help them improve as athletes.
Benjamin further said a few changes will be made for the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) senior cup challenge squad in order to give exposure to the young players so they can gain experience in playing football at a good level.
“If these young and local players build up international experience, we will have a good team to rely on,” he said.
Benjamin said he trusts all the players called up for national duties, and therefore, a defeat against Burundi cannot change his view on them. He said the team has 12 days to focus on the young players who need to gain international experience. The Cosafa senior cup challenge is slated for Durban, South Africa from 05 to 16 July 2023. -Nampa