Namibia’s Brave Warriors suffered one of their heaviest defeats in history when they lost 6-0 to Russia at Yekaterinburg on Saturday evening.
In recent years it ranks along with their 5-0 defeat to Angola in the 2024 Cosafa Cup final, while overall, it ranks with their biggest international defeats which both came against Egypt – 8-2 in 2001 and 7-1 in 1996.
Namibia managed to hold Russia at bay for most of the first half and went into halftime with a narrow 1-0 deficit, but the floodgates opened after the break as Russia completed a convincing victory.
Russia dominated possession from the outset, and Namibian keeper Kamaijanda Ndisiro was called into action early on when he tipped an Aleksandr Sobolev header away for a corner and pulled off a great diving save from a curling shot by Alexey Miranchuk.
Danil Prutsev and Lechi Sadulaev also came close, before Sadulaev finally opened their account after a fine back heel by Aleksander Sobolev to Artem Karpukas in the box.
Sadulaev nearly scored a second a few minutes later when Ndisiro tipped his long range cracker over the bar, while Namibia’s first real chance came just before halftime when captain Peter Shalulile ran onto a long Moses Shidolo cross but headed wide of the goals.
Russia stepped up their attacks in the second half with Konstantin Tyukavin twice coming close to scoring, before Danil Prutsev made it 2-0 in the 54th minute, benefitting from a slip by Kennedy Eib.
Konstantin Tyukavin made it 3-0 when he dropped his marker Ngero Katua with a deft turn to score from close range, before a late siege of three goals in eight minutes gave Russia commanding victory.
Maksim Glushenkov made it 4-0, chipping the ball over Ndisiro after a great throughball by Maksim Petrov, while Petrov scored from the penalty spot after a foul in the box.
An own goal by Ndisiro from a Glushenkov corner in injury time completed the Russian rout.
Russia entered the match as heavy favourites on their home turf with a Fifa ranking of 35th in the world compared to Namibia’s 122nd.
Their superiority soon became clear as they dominated possession by 65 percent to Namibia’s 35 percent, while they had 14 shots on target to none from Namibia.
For Namibia there was not much to enthuse about. Ndisiro pulled off some fine saves early on, until the goal avalanche came, while Moses Shidolo and Deon Hotto, who was playing a record 88th match for Namibia, initiated some attacks in midfield, but there was little communication or chances created.
A match of two halves – Benjamin
Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin said it was a match of two halves.
“I think in Saturday’s match, we basically showed two faces and we literally had two contrasting halves. I was of the opinion that the first half, we defended well against that onslaught from the Russian team.
We worked very well against the ball, we tried to minimise the spaces, and close them down so that they were not so dangerous, even though they also had a few shots on goal, so I think it wasn’t too bad a performance in the first half and it was unlucky that we conceded a goal,” he said.
“I thought we could maybe bounce back in the second half but they just stepped up their intensity, and with the quality of the opponent coming through, and with us making basic individual errors, they took their chances.
So panic set in and it contributed to our players just losing focus and once they scored that second goal, the third came, and obviously with the crowd behind them, we really lost the focus,” he added.
“But truth be told, it was a high level opponent. It’s an opponent that plays at the highest level, that dominated technically, tactically, and also physically, and it’s just something that our boys needed to know what is at the top,” he said.
Benjamin said it was an important lesson for Namibian football.
“I think this lesson is not only for the Brave Warriors, it’s for soccer in general, in Namibia that we have to also really work on our technique and physical strength to be able to win duels. And I think that was definitely also a good eye opener, how somebody can be physically strong and still be technically good with the ball,” he said.
“That’s what the Russians showed and I’m actually just happy for the lesson. It was a hard one, I think six goals were a lot, and it’s never nice for any team or any coach to lose like that, but it happened against such a high level opponent, so we just have to take it on the chin and we definitely have to learn from it,” he added.
