Staff Reporter
Windhoek-Debutants Swallows Football Academy were crowned champions of the 2018 Debmarine Namibia Cup Khomas preliminaries as they defeated Eleven Champions on penalties to advance to the next stage of the lucrative competition in the country.
In the final match played at the Independence Stadium on Sunday, Swallows and Eleven Champions faced off and after playing to a three-all draw, it was down to penalties and it was the youngsters of Swallows that held their nerve as they won 4-3 in the shoot-out to take home the N$20,000 in prize money as well as secure a place in the next elimination round.
As regional winners, Swallows will have to wait and see if they get drawn to play in another second division eliminator that will pit two regional winners against each other for a place in the round of 32 as only 13 second division clubs should be in the hat for the draw and not 14.
Swallows reached the final of the Khomas leg of the preliminaries at their first time of asking and along the way defeated favourites Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) 4-2 on penalties after a one-all draw in the quarterfinals and saw off Young Ones 3-2, again on penalties after a two-all draw in the semi-finals.
The Katutura-based team that has dominated youth leagues in the Khomas Region for some time now, are in their maiden season in the Khomas Second Division and sit third on the table after six games on 11 points.
Eleven Champions, 2017 regional winners of the Debmarine Namibia Cup, had the beating of Afrika Rassaps 2-1 in the quarterfinals and Kingston 5-4 on penalties after a one-all draw in the semi-finals.
The elimination rounds for the first and second divisions were scheduled to take place on the weekends of March 3 – 4 and March 10 – 11 with the draw for the second division elimination, pitting two regions against each other, to take place on March 12 and that eliminator scheduled to take place on Marc 17.
At the elimination round, each regional winner will walk away with N$20,000, while the losing finalist will get N$10,000 and each losing semi-finalist will receive N$5,000 for their part in the football extravaganza.