NAMIBIA’s professional football players in South Africa mostly had disappointing results in Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches over the weekend.
Of Namibia’s 12 players currently on the books of PSL teams, only three were in action, while only one player, Deon Hotto, was part of a winning team in the PSL.
Hotto played the full match for his team, Bloemfontein Celtic and helped them to a 2-0 home victory against Chippa United.
Chippa had a player sent off in the first half for a head butt, but Celtic took a while to break down their defence, before two late goals by Muse Nyatama secured them there three points.
It was Celtic’s first win of the year and only fourth of the season, and provides them welcome relief as they move out of the relegation zone and up to 12th position on 18 points, while Chippa United are eighth on 20 points.
Kaizer Chiefs, meanwhile, went to the top of the log after beating Highlands Park 1-0 on Saturday.
Namibia’s Peter Shalulile and Chris Katjiukua both played the full match for Highlands, with Shalulile coming close with an acrobatic early effort, but they ended on the losing side as Chiefs secured the win through a first half header by Lorenzo Gordinho.
The result sees Chiefs moving to the top of the log on 33 points, while Highlands Park are struggling in the relegation zone, in second last position on 14 points.
None of Namibia’s other professionals were in action in the PSL over the weekend.
Goalie Max Mbaeva was once again on the bench for his team Golden Arrows, who suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Free State Stars in Durban on Saturday.
Platinum Stars and Bidvest Wits both recorded preliminary round victories in the CAF competitions, but none of the Namibians on their books were in action.
Stars beat UD Songo of Mozambique in Maputo after a late goal by Robert Ng’ambi to book their place in the first round of the competition.
Namibia’s Henrico Botes, Benson Shilongo and Willem Mwedihanga were, however, not in Stars’ squad.
Wangu Gome was also not in Bidvest Wits’ squad that beat Saint-Louisienne of Reunion Island 3-1 to progress 4-3 on aggregate to the Round of 32 of the CAF Champions League competition. Wits will now face Egyptian giants Al Ahly in the next round.
In the South African National First Division (NFD), Denzil Haoseb and Ananias Gebhardt both played the full match for Jomo Cosmos, who suffered an injury time 1-0 defeat to Real Kings in Durban. Hendrik Somaeb was, however, not in Cosmos’ squad.
After the match, Haoseb was quoted as saying that a defensive lapse and poor communication led to their downfall.
“It was a momentary lapse in concentration and poor communication that cost us the game,” he was quoted as saying by jomocosmos.co.za.
“We went into the match with the intention to win and improve on our log position, and even though we had our moments to put the game away, it wasn’t going to be our day,” he added.
The result sees Jomo Cosmos remaining fifth on the log on 26 points – 14 behind the leaders Thanda Royal Zulu.
Haoseb, however, remained positive that they could finish among the top three teams to stand a chance of being promoted to the PSL.
“Winning is all about belief and we’ve got bags of that. We’ve also got players that are capable of realizing this objective. All we need to do is remain consistent by winning most of our remaining matches. It’s not going to be easy but we’ve got to believe in ourselves,” he said.
