Otjiwarongo Secondary School (OSS) made their trip to Windhoek worthwhile by securing a hard-fought 1-0 victory in their U/19 clash against Pioniers Boys at the Jan Möhr Football Field. 

The match was intense, with both teams giving their all on the field. 

Regan Kanjaua from Pioniers Boys expressed that despite the loss, his team played well and put up a tough fight. His teammates also shared similar sentiments. “What can I say? The game was tough. I don’t really know what happened; all I can say is that it was tough.” His teammate Penondjamo Katire added that they felt they lacked in certain areas. “We were not clicking as a unit today, and I feel we have to trust each other.”

Head coach of Otjiwarongo Secondary School Penda Nashilongo said it was a competitive match and congratulated his opponents.

 “They deserved to win today as they put up a good effort. Our boys also played well. I saw my number 11 suffered a lot of infringements as he was not protected that much from the referee, but there is nothing we can do now,” he added.

OSS player Onomasa Kandjii felt they created a lot of chances, but wasted most of them, which would have resulted in a much higher scoreline. “We wasted some chances, but we played very well. It was an excellent game. Our opponents were trying their best, but they could not handle us,” he said.

Elsewhere, a tough battle between Ramblers U/19 and Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW) went head-on, but both teams failed to cancel each other out. Ramblers were a man down in the second half as they got a red card, but they held on to a 0-all draw to better their chances of making it to the last round of eight, with only two games left to go.

Ramblers’ Tiago Tlhabanello said the game was intense. 

“We fought till the end, but we were given an unnecessary red card. We will go back to the training board,” he noted. “I want to encourage my team to be better, and focus on the last two games so we can qualify for the top eight. SKW came out really strong today, and we tried our best for them not to score.”

SKW’s Darryl Bock said they made the game difficult for themselves, as he thinks they should have won it in the end. “They went one man down and they were looking for a draw, which made it difficult to get the win. Ramblers are a good opponent, and we knew that from the start, we had it in the first 15 minutes of the game. When they got the red card, they dropped back and defended with their lives. We really can’t blame them, but we should have won it,” he said. 

– slunyangwe@nepc.com.na