THE Namibia Football Association (NFA) is preparing the women’s under-20 team for the biennial Zone Six Games scheduled for early December in Zambia.
According to Jackey Gertze of the NFA women desk, the team consists of a lot of exciting players who have came through the ranks while some of them are also part of the Elite Players programme of the NFA.She said that the Zone VI Games had always provided an ideal platform for the ladies to test themselves against the best in the region and also gain valuable experience.’I believe that women football benefits a lot whenever we participate in the Zone Six Games. Our players gain maturity after the competition. Every time Zone Six is played we have been part of such an opportunity to showcase our best youth players who came through the U/13 and U/15 Galz and Goals program and the elite players training squad,’ Gertze.’I always look forward to the Zone Six competitions because they give us the opportunity to select our top young players to add to the senior national team. After the 2010 Games in Swaziland, Zenatha Coleman, Tomalina Adams, Lorraine Jossop, Lovisa Mulunga, Carmel Don and Emma Naris all made it to the senior team,’ she added.Gertze also underscored the level of competition at the Games and urged the selected players to give their all when the competition starts in Lusaka from 6 to 17 December 2012.’The Zone VI tournament is tough. All teams are good and playing at a high level and I am therefore urging girls selected to make sure they are fit and ready to end in the top three or even win the competition. If they don’t get any medal, they must be proud that they have given their best to this country by the way they commit themselves to every match they play,’ she said.With Namibia hosting the 2014 CAF Women’s Championship, the Zambian tournament presents the perfect opportunity for players to impress the national selectors for the 2014 training squad and eventually the final 22-women squad.The NFA is behind the team and appreciates every opportunity women national teams will have from now on towards 2014 to play international matches.Team Namibia is expected to fly to Lusaka on December 4 and the women’s soccer team, coached by Bryan van Staden and Eveline Noreses, is already in camp. The Namibian women’s soccer team has so far won three bronze medals out of four Zone Six Games.In the squad are: Goalkeeper – Thandi Malo and Melanie Hikuam; Defenders – Lorraine Jossob, Lovisa Mulunga, Annouscka Kordom, Vitapamwe Kamahene, Alberta Dawes, Jennifer Uiras, Emma Naris, Carmel Don, Lena Noreses; Midfielders – Memory Ngonda, Tomalina Adams, Melissa Matheus, Zenatha Coleman; Strikers – Chamanda Uiras, Julian Blou, Anna Shikusho, Defney Nowabes.
