Follwoing the MTC Maris Cup quarter-final action at Oshakati over the weekend, attention turns to who will survive the penultimate battle and live to fight for the N$1-million dollar prize in the grand finale.
Favourites African Stars, Unam and Young African navigated their way into the semi-finals after overcoming their rivals in the last eight at the Oshakati Independence Stadium.
KK Palace and Bucs Buccaneers fought for the remaining spot in yesterday’s late kick-off.
Young African were the first to book their semi-final spot after edging FC Ongos, another pre-favourite, 1-0 in Saturday’s early kick-off.
George Hummel Jr capitalised on a blunder from FC Ongos’ defence to slot home the winner in the dying minutes of the game.
Next to secure a last four berth were Unam for whom Nestor Iiyambo scored a brace to eliminate coastal side Blue Waters FC 2-1.
Young African coach Augustinus Mukoya says their match and result went exactly as they had anticipated.
“Ongos came to us and wanted to press us very high so we decided to keep it tight at the back and hit them on a break which is what we did,” Mukoya says.
He looks forward to rallying his team for the last four stage at Mariental, where he will enjoy home backing after the club’s recent relocation to the south-central town from Gobabis.
“The support will be there and the boys are very happy to play the semi-final at Mariental,” he says.
After a goalless first half, the second game came alive when Blue Waters goalkeeper Owen Gariseb was sent off for handling the ball outside the box. He was deemed to be denying a clear goal scoring opportunity.
Unam’s Iyambo scored from the resulting free kick in the 58th minute, and poached another goal in the 73rd minute after Blue Waters failed to clear their lines from a corner.
Blue Waters’ Vahape Kasaona reduced arrears in the 83rd minute to make it a nervy finish for Unam, but the clever boys held on to win the match.
“We made the mistake of letting them score. A 2-1 scoreline is a very dangerous scoreline,” Unam head coach Robert Nauseb says.
Nauseb was “very proud” of his team’s performance but emphasises the importance of playing to the final whistle.
He believes similar lapses in concentration in the semi-final will prove fatal.
“But we will look at the clip of this game to know how we can fix our mistakes because we were also a little bit poor from the second balls,” Nauseb says.
African Stars Ronnie Kanalelo feels the playing surface affected his side’s performance against a physical and determined Mighty Gunners outfit.
They eventually won the contest 1-0, courtesy of Jomo Tjiveta’s second-half strike.
“We had to fight the opponent and the pitch which did not allow us to play our normal game. We needed to improvise and come up with solutions, which we did,” says Kanalelo, who wants his side to iron out their shortcomings ahead of the MTC Maris Cup semi-finals.
“It’s just for us to continue with our game model and work on those areas in the last third, getting that precision and decision-making right.
“If we get it right, I’m sure we’ll be able to score more goals,” Kanalelo notes.
“It’s young players, so consistency is still a problem. I need that consistency on a weekly-basis.”
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