Generally, we tend to stumble when estimating probabilities for instance if someone says “never” , yours truly usually register this as a minuscule probability greater than zero , since never cannot be compensated by a negative probability.
My humble plea, let us not get carried away and become too excited about victory when our national senior football team, the Brave Warriors confront Zambia for the eagerly awaited 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier at the Sam Nujoma stadium in Windhoek, tomorrow.
A quick glance at previous encounter between the two Southern African nations paints an interesting picture, so to speak. The Warriors have always given a good account of themselves whenever confronting the much fancied Chipolopolos, especially when playing away from home.
Ever since that embarrassing 4-nil drubbing at the hands of the Johnson Bwalya ‘s inspired revamped Zambian team that has just lost almost their entire playing personnel in a horrific plane crash on the coast of Gabon in 1993, Namibia has come out of its shell manufacturing some decent results against the Zambians.
Football has come a long way and there are no longer small teams at the international level the playing ground has been leveled but we should try by all means to win our home games if we are to become a major force to be reckoned with in continental football.
Playing at home should surely give us the much needed confidence booster and slight advantage over our visitors – we should go all out to intimidate visiting teams because its our stadium, our dressing rooms, our hotels and above all our crowd.
The crowd should play the role of the unofficial thirteenth man shouting and singing their lungs out rallying behind the team to silence the small army of the traveling Zambian supporters.
This practice of being overawed by visiting fans should be done away with even if we have to effect hard and fast rules such as banning the visiting fans from entering the stadium with their noisy trumpets and drums under the pretext that the field is adjacent to the graveyard and we have a moral duty to respect our departed ones, excuse the pun!!.
Let us also not allow our emotions to take the better of our conscious because some football fans appear to have a misplaced perception about the national team putting club loyalty ahead of national pride.
Yours truly has noticed with utter disgust the serial vulgar language used against certain players whilst putting the coach under undue pressure to effect substitutions whenever a player from your rival commits a human error to be replaced.
This habitual nauseating practice of swearing and insulting footballers at the slightest provocation should be discouraged at all costs because it diminishes the players self esteem and confidence. Athletes are human and have feelings too, there is nothing that can motivate players than being made aware that they have what it takes to fashion good results through praises.
It should be noted that the mind is a very sensitive organ of human activity and the moment it’s fed with negativity, it starts taking you seriously and the end result could be catastrophic. I rest my case.