Heartbreak for Young Warriors 

The Young Warriors need to beat Zambia today to end their brief Cosafa Men’s U20 Championship on a high.

Namibia are out of the competition after a late defensive error condemned them to a 1-0 loss to Angola on Sunday, with the latter booking their last four place in the process having also beaten Zambia 3-1 in the three-team Group B opener on Friday.

Neither the competition’s record winners Zambia or Namibia can qualify as the next best second-placed team even if they win their last pool clash.

The Young Warriors knew a tight group meant zero margin for error and looked on course for a point before a goalkeeping howler gifted Angola the only goal of the match through Filipe Quissequel just a minute before full-time.

Namibia coach James Britz says the costly blunder should not take away from an otherwise commendable display by his inexperienced charges.

He says Angola lived up to their billing as potential tournament winners.

“We saw their game against Zambia, and we were impressed with what they have done in terms of the game. How many goals they scored. And if you can beat a powerhouse like Zambia 3-1, it means you have a good squad,” Britz said in the post-match analysis.

“Our boys stuck to the game plan, you know. I think there were moments where we could have done better when we had the ball. Our boys, you know, the inexperience came in their way.”

The outcome was cruel on the Young Warriors who should not bury their heads in the sand,” he said.

“I think a draw would have been a true reflection of the game, because if you look at the stats, how many shots they had and how many shots we had, it was almost even,” Britz said.

“They had more of the ball in the first half. That’s what we wanted.

“Look, there are two things in football. You can have the ball, but you can still not be in control of the game. And you can also not have the ball, but then you can still be in control of the game,” the coach explained.

“So, our game plan worked perfectly well in the second half. Once we started to press high, they were also on the back foot.

“If you can see a centre-back getting a man of the match, then it must say something . . . that we have done something right.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the goal. They scored. We also had one or two chances that we could have done better,” Britz said.

In Group C, South Africa all but secured their passage to the semis with a comprehensive 6-0 victory over Lesotho on Sunday – two days after seeing off Malawi 5-0.

Malawi, who next face Lesotho today, bounced back with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Comoros, who take on South Africa.