Maurice Kambukwe

WINDHOEK - Brave Warriors interim coach Bobby Samaria blamed Saturday’s 2-0 defeat against Zambia on his team’s poor finishing in front of the goal. The 2-0 loss saw Namibia fail to retain the Dr Hage Geingob Cup, which they won last year.

Zambian Super League outfit Nkwazi F.C striker Emmanuel Chabula scored both goals for the visitors. 
Speaking to the media after the match, Samaria said his team could not capitalise their opportunities and that cost them the match in the end.

“We did not convert our chances to goals, in the first half we had three chances and we could not convert even a single one. Then just before the break, we made a mistake, we allowed the cross to come in, and they scored from a header. 

And then we saw a run off play, my central defender made a mistake, which is human and his timing was not good and he missed the ball and they scored. Remember the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations game against Chad is this coming week and there we will use our international players. You would have also noticed that we did not use players like Dynamo Fredericks in Saturday’s game and Larry Horaeb only came in later because Chad is already in the country and we knew they will be watching us. So the tactic was to try and confuse them,” said Samaria.

“But what we have learned here is that the guys can at least knock the ball and the only thing that we need to improve in the game against Chad is our conversion rate”
Meanwhile, Zambian mentor Osward Mutapa said the match served as a good platform for the team to prepare for the upcoming African Nations Championships (Chan) tournament, which is scheduled for next year.

“We knew it was going to be difficult, especially the first half but we felt at the end of the day we are going to be speedy in terms of play. We brought in a few new boys and they did well, three of them played and we are happy about game time, which is a plus to the Chan team for 2020. We were playing a good team, especially in the first half. Their wingers were very fast. The way forward is just like how Namibia is preparing, and this is a good platform. We will play a few games before January because of the Afcon qualifiers. So we are happy that we were given this invitation,” added Mutapa.