Otniel Hembapu

Orlando Pirates gaffer Woody Jacobs has warned that today’s Debmarine Namibia Premiership clash against Young African will not be a walk in the park for either side, as his charges are highly determined and have no intention to take their foot off the pedal.

Pirates are coming into the match from a weekend of moderate results, which saw them scrape a hard-fought 0-0 draw against Unam on Saturday, before going on to beat Tura Magic 3-1 on Sunday. 

And coach Jacobs believes that last weekend’s results will provide his charges with much-needed oomph to gun for maximum points against Young African at the Khomasdal stadium at 19h00. 

“Obviously, we know that it will not be an easy match against a team of Young African’s calibre and that’s why we have been preparing hard for this encounter. 

I think this past weekend’s matches also helped us a lot in terms of finding our combinations as a team and also in terms of the players gaining some needed match fitness. 

We played very well against tough opponents such as Unam and Tura Magic and one could see the boys are slowly getting there, so I’m just hoping that we will put up a similar performance against Young African,” said Jacobs. 

“The goal is to collect maximum points against Young African and that will hopefully move us into a much better position on the log table as we continue to look ahead to the upcoming rounds of matches. 

But like I always say, we are taking it one match at a time and for now, our focus is fully on Young African.”

Young African, on the other hand, had a bit of a scrappy run last weekend as they drew 1-1 against coastal outfit Eleven Arrows, before going down 1-2 to Blue Waters. 

Going into today’s clash, Young African will equally be hoping to reboot their league campaign with a win against Pirates and, therefore, Jacobs and his charges should expect nothing but fireworks from both ends of the pitch. 

- ohembapu@nepc.com.na