Namibia face tough encounter

THE Brave Warriors face a baptism of fire when they take on the Democratic Republic of Congo in an African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier in Lubumbashi on Sunday.

Ben Bamfuchile’s squad gave an encouraging display in a narrow 1-0 loss at home to South Africa last month, but the AFCON tie in Lubumbashi will be an entirely different matter. For a start, the DRC is ranked 63rd in the world, while Bafana was ranked 76rd before the Namibian encounter.Over the past year, the DRC has also been one of the more impressive teams on the continent.They reached this year’s African Cup of Nations finals in Egypt, where they beat World Cup finalist Togo 2-0 and drew 0-0 against another World Cup finalist, Angola in the group stages.They then lost 2-0 to Cameroon but still managed to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition, where they lost 4-1 to eventual African champions, Egypt.According to reports they have called up their strongest line-up which includes star strikers Lomana LuaLua, who plays for English Premier League side Portsmouth and Shabani Nonda, who plays for Italian Serie A team AS Roma.In front of a capacity crowd in Lubumbashi, the Brave Warriors will face an intimidating reception, while recent withdrawals to their squad have not helped their cause.Collin Benjamin got injured in a league match for Hamburg last weekend, while Primero de Agosto midfielder Meraai Swartbooi also misses the match due to a groin injury.Quinton Jacobs will not join the squad, since he remained in Norway after signing up with Norwegian first division club Bryne FC earlier this week.Attacking midfielder Heini Isaacs is another absentee, after he left for Germany to attend trials with German and Danish clubs.The Brave Warriors’ goalkeeper coach, Ronnie Kanalelo, however said that their absence would not disrupt the team’s preparations.”Quinton hasn’t played for us before, so his non-arrival is not an issue.Basically we still have the same squad, except for Heini Isaacs, so we just have to make a few adjustments,” he said.Kanalelo said the team had showed progress during its training camp in Johannesburg, where they played two friendly matches.Last Friday they lost 5-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns, but with the addition of their South African-based professionals, they beat Jomo Cosmos 2-0 on Tuesday.Kanalelo said Namibia was due to play one more friendly match against a South African second division team, City Raiders, late yesterday.After struggling to find the net in recent matches, Namibia finally scored against Jomo Cosmos through striker Costa Khaiseb and midfielder Victor Helu.Namibia however missed several more scoring opportunities, mainly by Khaiseb, Henrico Botes and Michael Pienaar.This is one area that will have to be improved upon against the DRC.According to Kanalalelo, the main problem that the Namibian team faced was the lack of an attacking winger.”We are missing a quality winger who can provide good crosses from the wings.At this stage our only option is Hartman Toromba, but we need an explosive player with pace and who can provide good crosses,” he said.Team manager Markus Damaseb said the squad was in high spirits and looking forward to the match against the DRC.namibiasport.com.naFor a start, the DRC is ranked 63rd in the world, while Bafana was ranked 76rd before the Namibian encounter.Over the past year, the DRC has also been one of the more impressive teams on the continent.They reached this year’s African Cup of Nations finals in Egypt, where they beat World Cup finalist Togo 2-0 and drew 0-0 against another World Cup finalist, Angola in the group stages.They then lost 2-0 to Cameroon but still managed to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition, where they lost 4-1 to eventual African champions, Egypt.According to reports they have called up their strongest line-up which includes star strikers Lomana LuaLua, who plays for English Premier League side Portsmouth and Shabani Nonda, who plays for Italian Serie A team AS Roma.In front of a capacity crowd in Lubumbashi, the Brave Warriors will face an intimidating reception, while recent withdrawals to their squad have not helped their cause.Collin Benjamin got injured in a league match for Hamburg last weekend, while Primero de Agosto midfielder Meraai Swartbooi also misses the match due to a groin injury.Quinton Jacobs will not join the squad, since he remained in Norway after signing up with Norwegian first division club Bryne FC earlier this week.Attacking midfielder Heini Isaacs is another absentee, after he left for Germany to attend trials with German and Danish clubs.The Brave Warriors’ goalkeeper coach, Ronnie Kanalelo, however said that their absence would not disrupt the team’s preparations.”Quinton hasn’t played for us before, so his non-arrival is not an issue.Basically we still have the same squad, except for Heini Isaacs, so we just have to make a few adjustments,” he said.Kanalelo said the team had showed progress during its training camp in Johannesburg, where they played two friendly matches.Last Friday they lost 5-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns, but with the addition of their South African-based professionals, they beat Jomo Cosmos 2-0 on Tuesday.Kanalelo said Namibia was due to play one more friendly match against a South African second division team, City Raiders, late yesterday.After struggling to find the net in recent matches, Namibia finally scored against Jomo Cosmos through striker Costa Khaiseb and midfielder Victor Helu.Namibia however missed several more scoring opportunities, mainly by Khaiseb, Henrico Botes and Michael Pienaar.This is one area that will have to be improved upon against the DRC.According to Kanalalelo, the main problem that the Namibian team faced was the lack of an attacking winger.”We are missing a quality winger who can provide good crosses from the wings.At this stage our only option is Hartman Toromba, but we need an explosive player with pace and who can provide good crosses,” he said.Team manager Markus Damaseb said the squad was in high spirits and looking forward to the match against the DRC.namibiasport.com.na