BLUE Waters, the second-oldest Premier League club in Namibia, survived relegation by the skin of their teeth on Sunday, despite suffering a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Premier League champions African Stars in Windhoek.
Going into this season’s final round of matches on Sunday, Chief Santos and Rundu Chiefs had already been relegated, but the third relegation candidate still had to be decided between Blue Waters and Young Chiefs.
If Blue Waters had beaten Stars, they would have been safe. But if they lost and Young Chiefs had drawn or beaten Unam in their final match at Oshakati, Blue Waters would have been relegated.
Blue Waters, though, gave a poor performance against Stars, and never looked like they could win the match as Stars dominated from the start. Two goals by national striker Panduleni Nekundi and another by Godwin Jena already put Stars 3-0 ahead by half-time to effectively seal the match.
Despite having their survival on the line, Blue Waters offered little resistance, and the second half more resembled a training session for Stars as they dominated possession and passed the ball around before completing a comfortable victory.
Luckily for Blue Waters, though, Young Chiefs failed to take advantage as they lost 2-1 to Unam, thus ensuring that they would be relegated instead of Blue Waters.
Blue Waters have been struggling this season with a young and inexperienced squad, while their coach Armando Pedro left the team earlier this season due to work commitments.
Since then, former stalwarts, defender Fisher Kalimba and midfielder Johnny Hawala have taken over as caretaker coaches, but their results did not improve as they descended into the relegation battle.
After their defeat to Stars, Kalimba said their players did not show the necessary fighting spirit.
“We started the game on a negative note, and the guys were not willing to play for a win. We told them what was at stake and that we had to win the game, but I think their motivation was a bit low, and they were struggling to cope. They were not doing what we instructed them to do, so everything just went wrong against Stars,” he stated.
“I think there were a lot of issues that went wrong, but the players didn’t step up and take the team to heart and say that we want to fight as a unit – it’s only certain guys who were fighting, not all of us.
“We always try to motivate the guys, and give them proper training to be fit. But the players that we have are maybe not capable of playing for Blue Waters because they are not playing with their heart, and that’s why we are losing most of our games when we are travelling away,” he added.
With the season now having come to an end, Blue Waters’ under-fire management will have to take stock and make decisions regarding their players and coaching staff for next season, and Kalimba said he would like to continue coaching the team.
“I hope to continue, but I don’t know what the management is going to do after this campaign, so we have to wait and see what their decision is. Maybe I’ll be there or not, it all depends on them. If they choose me, I’ll do the job, but if it’s not the case, I’ll have to do something else, and they will have to bring in a new coach to bring a new environment into the team,” he noted.
Kalimba said the management team will have to sign more experienced players to make the team more competitive.
“Some of the youngsters are not really experienced enough to play at this level, although they are still learning. But I think we need to bring in new players who can step up and bring new competition into the team so that we can be more competitive, and not lose like this. We all know Blue Waters as a team that always fights, but as we have seen this whole season, we have not been fighting, and we have struggled a lot, especially when we were travelling away,” he said.
