THE national men’s football team, Brave Warriors got off their Cosafa Cup campaign to a slow start when they played a 1-1 all against host nation South Africa in their opening encounter at King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban on Wednesday. 

Elmo Kambindu scored Namibia’s goal in the first half before Rowan Human equalised for the host. 

The draw saw the Warriors and South Africa remain on one point behind Botswana who are three points, while Eswatini are at the bottom of the log with zero points. 

Reflecting on the match yesterday, head coach Collin Benjamin expressed his satisfaction with how the team played in the first half. 

He, however, said after conceding the goal in the second half, the team slightly lost a bit of focus. 

“Compliment to my team, they played very well, and they could adjust to the high pace and good positioning of South Africa. I think the first 20-25 minutes, we had a problem at the right side of the pitch, we could not contain the positional change from them that’s why they had few chances from the right,” Benjamin explained. 

He said heading forward, they will have to change the strategy and see how they can fix things. 

“We got into the lead and we conceded a goal too early in the second half, and a little bit of maturity was lacking there. Defenders were away from each other but we have picked up those lessons and we have to fight moving forward,” he said. 

Tomorrow, Namibia will face Eswatini who are also hoping to pick up their first points at the tournament at the same venue. They will wrap up their campaign on Monday next week when they take on Botswana at Chatsworth Stadium. mkambukwe@nepc.com.na