After a lull of half a year the Brave Warriors head into a busy period of three matches in 10 days at the end of this month.
They will play two Afcon 2027 qualifying matches against Congo Brazzaville at Francistown on 24 September and away to Comoros five days later, while the NFA on Monday confirmed that they will also play an international friendly against Russia in Yekaterinburg on 3 October.
Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin yesterday welcomed the news, saying it had been in the pipeline for quite a while.
“The Russia match has actually been pending for quite a while. There was an opportunity to play them last year at about the time when they played Zambia, but it did not materialise for various reasons. And now this international window is quite long – its three weeks – so that gave us a good opportunity to grab this chance,” he said.
“Russia is obviously high class opposition, and they are definitely a different kind of opposition than what we are used to. And just because of the experience and the exposure and all of that, I think it’s a good opportunity for our boys to test themselves against such opposition,” he added.
Russia was banned from all official Fifa and Uefa competitions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but they have remained active and delivered some impressive results in numerous friendly matches over the past year.
In March they thumped Zambia 5-0, beat Nicaragua 3-1, and drew 0-0 against Mali, while in May they lost 1-0 to Egypt.
In June they beat Burkina Faso and Trinidad & Tobago by the same score, 3-0.
Russia is currently ranked 35th in the world – well ahead of Namibia’s 121st ranking, but Benjamin said it presented a great opportunity for them.
“It’s not a secret that Russia is a very good team and they have very good players playing at the highest level. For us to have this opportunity to play against them, I think it’s just really a great opportunity and can only benefit us. Our players will gain a lot of experience and for us as the coaching team also, because it’s a totally different opposition that we normally play against, so we welcome that and we will go into these matches with euphoria and confidence.
“For us as the technical team, we will strive to prepare the team as well as possible so that they can deliver on the day and represent Namibia to the best of their abilities,” he added.
Afcon 2027 qualifying campaign
Before the Russia match, though, Namibia will kick off their Afcon 2027 qualifying campaign with a ‘home’ match against Congo Brazzaville at Francistown on 24 September, since their stadiums are not up to standard to host international matches.
Namibia will compete in Group G of the Afcon qualifiers against Congo Brazzaville, Comoros and Cameroon, with the top two nations qualifying for the 2027 Afcon finals in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Cameroon are the favourites to top the group with a world ranking of 43, while Comoros are ranked 108th and Congo Brazzaville 134th.
“If you ask all four teams what they want from these matches, they will say they want to win as many matches as possible and to qualify for Afcon 2027, so I think Namibia is in the same position. We will enter the campaign with confidence, and we will give it our best. We’re going to work towards having the players physically and mentally in top condition, so that we can play these matches successfully,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin last week named a 29-man squad that will still be trimmed down to a final 24, which mostly features foreign-based players. Eight players play professionally in South Africa, another eight in Zimbabwe; two in Botswana, and one each in Tanzania and Saudi Arabia, while nine play in the Namibian Premier League.
“Most of the boys abroad have been playing regularly, while at home African Stars and Unam have been in action in continental competitions. The players will come together in Francistown on the 20th of September, but some players will still be playing for their clubs then, so they will only join us on the 21st. The Monday is normally a regenerative day because some of the players will be very fatigued, so that leaves us with the 23rd on the Wednesday. So we will basically only have one day to prepare with the whole team together, but we must just prepare as best we can under the circumstances,” he said.
“But most of the players that we have called up have been there before so they know what we expect from them, and how we want to play. We would have wanted more time to prepare, that’s not a secret, but we have to make do with what we have,” he added.
