BLACK Africa underscored their reputation as Namibia’s Cup Kings when they recovered from two goals down to beat the defending Debmarine Cup champions Young African after a marathon penalty shootout on Sunday evening.
After an action-packed 90 minutes the match went into penalties and the shootout was eventually settled when BA’s reserve goal keeper Viril Namaseb saved his opposite number, Mbemutjiua Mata’s shot to give BA a 10-9 victory.
Young African struck early on to take a 2-0 lead through goals by Harold Kandaera and Ikuaterua Hoveka, the latter, a great corner kick that curled in at the far post.
Midway through the first half, Emilio Martin opened Black Africa’s account with a penalty to make the half time score 2-1.
Jerome Louis equalised for BA 15 minutes into the second half, but Martin was sent off after committing two fouls in five minutes, and BA had to play with 10 men for the last quarter. They defended admirably though, taking the match to penalties, where Namaseb pulled off a fine save off Mata, and then also beat Mata with his own spot kick to hand BA a dramatic victory.
Black Africa coach Lucky Richter commended his players on a great effort.
“I think my players did very well, they shifted themselves on the field when we got the red card, without even the instructions of the coach, so I think they did a good job with that,” he said.
“We are seasoned cup competitors and I think we just drew from our previous experiences, so we stayed composed and we were just outsmarting them a little bit,” he added.
Richter paid respect to Young Ones saying they are one of the best teams in the league.
“We played against one of the best teams in the NPL and we respect them. They are really a team that has character as they showed once again and their results against all the other Premier League teams also say the same, so I think they can go places if they stick together.”
Young African coach Maleagi Ngarizemo said they just had to take the defeat and move on.
“I think we started very well – we scored two quick goals like we planned, but then our defence let us down with that second goal – but what can we do, we just have to move on. Tough luck to the boys and congratulations to BA and we move on,” he said.
He said the sending off of Martin just made BA more determined and dangerous.
“It’s not so easy, because you have to be tactically very disciplined at the back and a team that is one man down is the most dangerous team. So we could not move someone from the back, we had to keep our shape because they were coming. We even created a lot of chances after he was sent off, but what can we do, we have to take it and move on.”
The earlier match at the Sam Nujoma Stadium between Tura Magic and Mighty Gunners also went to a shoot out after a goalless 90 minutes and Magic eventually won 5-4 on penalties.
The results of other Debmarine Cup matches on Sunday are as follows:
Unam 7 Eastern Chiefs 2; Dynamos 1(3) Onathinge 1(2); Golden Bees 1(4) Life Fighters 1(2).
The remaining 16 teams in the competition are: Blue Waters, Eleven Arrows, Black Africa, Orlando Pirates, Unam, African Stars, Tura Magic, Civics, Chief Santos, Young Chiefs, Dynamos, Golden Bees
Khomas Nampol, Swakopmund FC, Once Again and Khuse FC.
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