Great start for Young African 

Young African got off to a great start to the new Namibia Premier Football League with a 3-0 win against Tigers on Saturday. 

After a goalless first half, Young African upped the tempo and took a firm grip on the match with two goals within ten minutes of the restart. 

Aubrey Amseb, back from a spell abroad in Morocco, converted a penalty after a foul in the box, and then barely five minutes later, their new South African midfielder Lethabo Raphalo made it 2-0 after a fine exchange of passes with another new recruit, Walid Traore from the Ivory Coast. 

Traore then got on the score sheet himself, scoring from the edge of the box midway through the second half. 

Tigers hardly troubled Young Africans’ defence, although Andreas Nghidinwavali provided some fine crosses from the right wing, while Giovani Kaninab had an effort scrambled away by the Young African defence. 

Young African coach Maleagi Ngarizemo said it was a fine second half effort after being held to a goalless halftime draw. 

“I want to congratulate my boys for coming back strongly in the second half, and getting the three goals. It’s still a bit rusty, and not the best football we wanted. Football has started, so now we need to go back again and see how we can improve for the next match, because it’s not just about winning, you also want to make sure you play good football so you attract people to the team. It’s good that we won, but it was not the best game that I wanted to see today – tough luck to Tigers, but we soldier on,” he said. 

Ngarizemo said their participation in the CAF Confederation Cup where they lost 7-0 on aggregate to Royal Leopards of Eswatini helped them a lot. 

“Yes it helped us a lot – look at our team return, maybe three players are over 25, the rest are younger from 19 to 24, so I think it helped us a lot and we got very good experience,” he said. 

“If I had a chance to sit on the bench as a coach during these games I think we would have done better also, because the players maybe understand me better, but not taking anything from Woody, we tried our best. But it’s fine, we learned a lot, it was a good experience and also a good financial gain for the club,” he added. 

In the first match of the new season, FC Ongos and Unam played to a 1-1 draw on Friday night. 

After a goalless first half, Vjihimsa Siririka gave Unam the lead, but FC Ongos equalised through attacking midfielder Simon Elago to grab a share of the spoils. 

Newly-promoted Eleven Arrows, meanwhile, made a great debut in the premier league with a 2-1 victory against cross town rivals Blue Waters at Walvis Bay.

Willem Pinehas and Tjitjiheiue Kurija scored their goals while Blue Waters replied through a stunning freekick by winger Angelo Kuezi. 

At the Severin KGA Stadium in Oshakati, KK Palace got off to a 2-1 winning start in their northern derby against Eeshoke Chula Chula. 

Vickson Shivute and Precious Garoeb scored for KK Palace while Michael Jonas replied for Chula Chula. 

On Sunday, African Stars beat Khomas Nampol 1-0 through a goal by Lawrence Doeseb, while Mighty Gunners beat Life Fighters 2-0 through goals by David Jonas and Given Mutuezu. 

Okahandja United and Bucks Buccaneers drew 1-1 with Ricardo Isaaks scoring for Okahandja and Denzil Narib for Buccaneers. 

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