From the Sidelines with Corry Ihuhua

THE Namibia Football Association’s (NFA) appointment of Max Johnson as the caretaker coach of the Brave Warriors is a welcome move, although it comes too late.

It is indeed a welcome move to have Johnson as the man in charge of the Warriors. But, there are still a few issues that need to be highlighted regarding the team that he is going to take charge of.It has now become a norm in Namibia that people wait until the last minute before taking action on pressing issues and that has been proven time and again in the sporting fraternity.With regards to the troubled Warriors, the main concern at present is the limited time that the team has to prepare for their Cosafa Cup encounter with Angola in Luanda on May 9.A month is certainly not enough to prepare for the match considering also that the Warriors have been out of action for long.Johnson first needs to assemble a team.The team could be made of new and old players.Johnson will have very little time to do a proper assessment of the players and find the find the right combinations for his team.On top of that the Chief Santos coach also has to agree with his team of new technical staff when it comes to drawing up the plan of action for the team.One can only hope that the Chief Santos coach has looked at the current premier league players closely enough to form the basis of his team.Our foreign-based legion has proved to be a disappointment at crucial times.The bottom line is that Johnson will be expected to deliver in Angola with the team that he assembles in the short time.At this stage, the training programme for the team is not yet known, but that will be interesting to see how it will turn out.If the team will have to train during the week only, excluding weekends, from next Monday until May 7, it will have only 40 days to its credit.The team will not be expected to be on the field everyday until at least two weeks before the Angola match.It will approximately leave the side with less than 25 days to prepare for the match.This is certainly not enough time and judging from the funds available, the association will possibly only afford to keep them in camp for two weeks.That is now a whole different ball game.Now, what about the question of warm-up friendlies.If that can be fit in during a weekend towards the end of March, will the team that has been trimmed to make the trip be good enough to tackle their opponents.And who will these opponents be? The opponents as we know in terms of warm-ups have been a problem for the Brave Warriors, who basically end up playing a university side or a weakened premier league team.It is also an area that the football authorities should address if they want to ensure that we send a competitive team to Angola that can at least come back home with a decent account of themselves, even if they lose out.We need to guard against rushing into this encounter with players that have not played together for sometime, while at the same time they had little time to be match-fit.The ball is now in Johnson’s court and he will be the man to come up with a winning combination that will lift the dead football spirit among the Namibian football fans.But, there are still a few issues that need to be highlighted regarding the team that he is going to take charge of.It has now become a norm in Namibia that people wait until the last minute before taking action on pressing issues and that has been proven time and again in the sporting fraternity.With regards to the troubled Warriors, the main concern at present is the limited time that the team has to prepare for their Cosafa Cup encounter with Angola in Luanda on May 9.A month is certainly not enough to prepare for the match considering also that the Warriors have been out of action for long.Johnson first needs to assemble a team.The team could be made of new and old players.Johnson will have very little time to do a proper assessment of the players and find the find the right combinations for his team.On top of that the Chief Santos coach also has to agree with his team of new technical staff when it comes to drawing up the plan of action for the team.One can only hope that the Chief Santos coach has looked at the current premier league players closely enough to form the basis of his team.Our foreign-based legion has proved to be a disappointment at crucial times.The bottom line is that Johnson will be expected to deliver in Angola with the team that he assembles in the short time.At this stage, the training programme for the team is not yet known, but that will be interesting to see how it will turn out.If the team will have to train during the week only, excluding weekends, from next Monday until May 7, it will have only 40 days to its credit.The team will not be expected to be on the field everyday until at least two weeks before the Angola match.It will approximately leave the side with less than 25 days to prepare for the match.This is certainly not enough time and judging from the funds available, the association will possibly only afford to keep them in camp for two weeks.That is now a whole different ball game.Now, what about the question of warm-up friendlies.If that can be fit in during a weekend towards the end of March, will the team that has been trimmed to make the trip be good enough to tackle their opponents.And who will these opponents be? The opponents as we know in terms of warm-ups have been a problem for the Brave Warriors, who basically end up playing a university side or a weakened premier league team.It is also an area that the football authorities should address if they want to ensure that we send a competitive team to Angola that can at least come back home with a decent account of themselves, even if they lose out.We need to guard against rushing into this encounter with players that have not played together for sometime, while at the same time they had little time to be match-fit.The ball is now in Johnson’s court and he will be the man to come up with a winning combination that will lift the dead football spirit among the Namibian football fans.