Namibia’s road to the 2018 Fifa World Cup faces a big obstacle in the form of Guinea, whom they will meet in a first leg preliminary qualifying encounter in Windhoek on Thursday afternoon.
Namibia beat Gambia 3-2 over two legs in the tournament’s first round preliminary matches, but according to Fifa rankings, Namibia was favoured to win that encounter.
According to the November 2015 Fifa rankings, Gambia dropped seven places to 168 in the world, while Namibia climbed seven places to 118.
Guinea, on the other hand, is ranked much higher, and is currently 53rd in the world and ninth in Africa.
They have never qualified for the World Cup, but they have a strong presence in Africa, having regularly reached the knockout stages of the African Cup of Nations in recent years.
At this year’s Afcon finals in Equatorial Guinea, they remained unbeaten in the group stages, after consecutive one-all draws against Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Mali.
They reached the quarterfinals, just beating Mali after a drawing of lots, after the two nations were tied on head-to-head record, overall goal difference, and overall goals scored. In the quarterfinals, they lost 3-0 to eventual runners-up Ghana.
Guinea has also been actively preparing for the encounter against Namibia and played three friendly matches last month. On 12 October they drew 1-1 away to Morocco and five days later they beat Senegal 2-0 in the Malian capital Bamako. On 24 October they however lost 3-1 to Senegal in Dakar.
The Guinea team is captained by 25-year-old Florentin Pogba, who plays for French Ligue 1 club Saint Etienne.
Florentin’s twin brother and striker Mathias recently made his debut for the national side, but it is their younger brother Paul, who has grabbed the headlines with his performances for Juventus and France.
The 22-year-old Paul, who unlike his brothers was born in France, has become one of the wold’s most sought after players, with transfer rumours linking him to Barcelona and Chelsea.
Guinea has numerous other star players in their squad who are playing for top clubs in Europe, and it is especially in attack that they have an abundance of talent with numerous top strikers to choose from.
These include Ismael Bangoura of Nantes, France; Ibrahima Traore of German Bundesliga club Borussia Moenchengladbach; and Idrissa Sylla and Mohamed Yattara who play for the Belgian Premier League clubs Anderlecht and Standard Liege respectively.
They have a young team, and according to captain Florentin Pogba, they are confident of qualifying for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
“If we can manage to make the best possible use of our assets, I believe that we can qualify for Russia 2018,” he told fifa.com
Namibia, meanwhile has called up a strong squad which includes numerous South African-based professionls like captain Ronald Ketjijere and Willem Mwedihanga of Pretoria University; Max Mbaeva, Chris Katjiukua and Deon Hotto of Golden Arrows, Hendrik Somaeb of Free State Stars, Virgil Vries of Maritzburg United, Wangu Gome of Wits University; as well as Willy Stephanus of Krabi FC in Thailand and Benson Shilongo of Gaborone United in Botswana.
Coach Ricardo Mannetti has also brought some promising young players into the squad like Dynamo Fredericks of Black Africa, Jonas Sakaria of Eleven Arrows and Ferdinand Karongee of Tigers, who all made their national debuts at the Four Nations tournament in Luanda last week where Namibia lost 1-0 to Angola and then beat Zambia on penalties to claim the bronze medal trophy.
Thursday’s match starts at 16h00 at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, with the gates opening at 14h00.
Tickets are available from Computicket and Football House in Katutura at N$40 each. The NFA has reminded fans that once you have paid and gained entrance, you have to stay in the stadium until after the match, otherwise if you exit you will have to pay again to go back in.
