Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW) U/17 football team produced an inspiring performance to steamroll 4-1 past a lacklustre Ramblers U/17 B team.
The one sided match took place at the Jan Möhr football field in the first leg of the knockout stage over the past weekend.
SKW scored the first goal of the match just two minutes into the match, in what turned out to be total dominance from the boys in green.
They went on to score another goal in the first half before adding two more in the second half. Ramblers got their consolation goal late in the second half to give themselves faint hope in the second leg.
Ramblers coach Alvero Goagoseb lamented his team’s performance due to some backroom issues that caused their disastrous start going into the knockout stages. “I won’t say my boys prepared well; they played against a strong team, and my boys just lost it because we were just eleven on the field with no substitutes, so I think the fatigue and tiredness got to us. But in the second leg, hopefully we will mount a serious comeback against them,” he said.
He added that there is currently a lot of demotivation and personal stuff going on around the club, a situation that is not ideal for the boys to perform in.
“Hopefully, at the end of the season and the beginning of next season, everything can be rectified so they can come back stronger,” he said.
Goagoseb also mentioned that he had a lot of key players that were missing on match day with his captain ruled out for the rest of the season by an injury.
“We have a few key players out due to other obligations, so for the second leg, I hope they will all be back and be ready for them,” he explained.
A delighted Brighton Ziyakatira, the SKW coach, felt they controlled the game from
start to finish and dictated the game of play all over the field during the match.
“Our combination play was good, and our early goal helped us. I am very impressed with the style of play of my boys. I think we can do more. We were a bit nonchalant as we needed to increase our intensity, but I’m happy with the result,” he added.
For the second leg, Ziyakatira feels that he does need to rotate the squad more, which will require his boys to increase their tempo and intensity, which he felt was a bit slow on Saturday.
“Generally, we want to play with a higher tempo. You know, with knockout football, anything can happen. It’s also important to remain humble and see how we progress when the second leg comes,” he said.
“Our players enjoyed the match on the day because that’s what we want to inculcate in their mentality: they must enjoy and be calm during the game. They played with more combinations playing from the back. They are a good bunch of players because we have been together almost nine months into the year, which shows a good camaraderie amongst them, and you could see there was a smile on their faces,” he ended.
Elsewhere, the U/13 Group A and B matches saw three matches take place over the weekend at the Telecom Football Field.
The first match of the morning was between Dama SC and Swallows in Group B.
Dama SC got the better of their opponents via a 3-1 victory.
Dama coach Silas Shimakeleni was pleased with his boys’ performance, especially with them scoring early goals at the beginning of the match.
“We got the goals early in the match, but our quality dropped a bit because we could have ended this game with four or five goals. Heading into the second half, we then tried to motivate them, but it became tough when it became 2–1,” he said.
Shimakeleni felt that they deserved the victory but wanted the team to improve on their goal difference, as it may be a deciding factor in who progresses from their group.
“I think my boys underestimated Swallows today because they are formidable. The number of corners and offsides they had showed us exactly what their game plan was. They came back strong in the second half, but we managed to hold on and got the third goal. They put up a big fight in the second half,” he concluded.
Jacobus Stein from Swallows felt the match was hard for him and his boys, as they could not find their rhythm and missed a lot of chances in front of goal.
“They tried their best against all odds. We just have to go back to the drawing board and see how we can get back again,” he explained.
With their loss, coach Stein feels that they won’t be able to make it out of the group stages at the moment. “We only have one win this season, so I don’t see us progressing forward. We are building this team for next season, so most of them are going to be playing together next year. The only positive that I can take from the match is that they are trying to play the system we have been trying to implement, which is a plus for me today,” he said.