African Stars face Hotspurs tonight

Action in the MTC Premiership continues tonight when African Stars take on Hotspurs in a Round 18 match at the Sam Nujoma Stadium.

Both teams have had disappointing seasons and will be going all out for victory. For Hotspurs its a do or die match as they aim to get out of the relegation zone, while Stars will be aiming to finish their campaign on a high note.Stars started the season off well and were lying second behind Black Africa for most of the first round. But successive defeats to Civics and SKW saw them drop down to fourth on the log and since then they have failed to live up to expectations. In recent matches they lost to Black Africa and Blue Waters and only managed to beat Ramblers after a late goal by Muna Katupose. The pressure has been building up on coach Bobby Samaria and there have been rumours that former Stars great Oscar Mengo will join the team as technical director, although team manager Lesley Kozonguizi dismissed this.Kozonguizi dismisses rumours ‘There is no truth in this rumour and we wont even respond to it. Some people are just fabricating these rumours to try and put pressure on us,’ he said.Kozonguizi also dismissed rumours that Samaria had had a fallout with star midfielder star midfielder Rudi Louw, who was not selected for their last match against Ramblers. ‘I am not the coach, but the players’ performances are judged by the coach and he obviously decided that Rudi Louw was not up to form. When Jamu Ngatjizeko was left out for many games no one queried that, so why are they doing so now. You are only as good as your last match,’ he said. Stars will be without three stalwarts who are injured namely defenders Pat Uanivi, Jamu Ngatjizeko and Ricardo Tjiouro and will find the going tough against Hotspurs who will be fighting for survival. After being held to a 3-3 draw by Eleven Arrows on March 17, and then losing 2-0 to Tigers the following week, Hotspurs dropped into the relegation zone for the first time since October 15 last year. They are still level on points with 10th placed Arrows but have an inferior goal aggregate. Hotspurs have had problems in defence, leaking the most goals in the Premier League, namely 40, but they have a strong enough attack in players like Richard Kavendji, Riaan Cloete, John Schultz and Leonard Stanley. Kavendji, in fact, has been in great goalscoring form and is currently the joint top goal scorer with Jerome Louis on eight goals. In their first round match on November 2, Hotspurs and African Stars played to a 1-1 draw. Kavendji gave Hotspurs an early lead but Muna Katupose equalised for Stars just before halftime.