Stars clicking into gear 

African Stars scored a morale-boosting 1-0 victory against Township Rollers at the Independence Stadium on Saturday.

This is ahead of their CAF Champions League campaign.

Stars’ young midfielder Reinhardt Gaseb scored the winner 15 minutes from time but they created several more chances, while the performances of some of their new signings were also encouraging.

The most impressive performance came from their new striker, Laudry Bosako Mukaba from the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose physical presence immediately made an impact when he came on as a second half substitute.

Rollers, who also featured former Stars players Marcel Papama and Aubrey Amseb, controlled possession in the opening stages.

However, Stars grew stronger as the match progressed, with their evergreen forward Awilo Stephanus once again in the thick of things.

A great Stephanus freekick hit the crossbar, while he also had some chances, but could not find the target.

Stephanus continued to torment Rollers’ defence with his tricky runs down the right wing after the break, with Edmund Kambunda and Vitapi Ngaruka both coming close to scoring from a corner and a freekick, respectively.

Rollers hardly troubled Stars’ defence, well marshalled by Ngaruka and Charles Hambira, while Lesotho international Tabang Malane made a satisfactory debut at right back.

Stars’ coach Ronnie Kanalelo rang the changes in the final quarter, bringing on several substitutes. Two of them, Gaseb and Mukaba, immediately made their presence felt.

A cross by Malane was just cleared from Gaseb in the box, before a Mukaba shot was parried by Rollers’ keeper to Gaseb, who pounced to put the ball into the net.

With Gaseb and Mukaba continuing to put pressure on the Rollers’ defence, more chances came their way but they could not convert and eventually had to settle for a 1-0 victory.

Kanalelo said he was confident from the start.

“If you do the basics right and keep the organisation, then you’ll always have a good chance. I always look at my team and I look at the opponents – when they have the ball, what are they doing with it? Are they threatening us, is our goalkeeper under pressure, or is the defence suffering? And if the answer is no, then I know it’s just a matter of time. At some point I knew things would come right, we needed just one chance and that’s what happened,” he said.

“Today there was a lot of aggression in terms of defending, there was a lot of ball protection and retention. The whole of last week we were working on the attack and the pressing, which looked very good today, so now the next stage is how to create and penetrate the defensive line.”

Kanalelo was also full of praise for Makubu’s performance.

“The physical presence was there and if you look at the goal we scored, he showed what strength is all about, he gave us that extra edge. He really held the defender off well and that’s where the goal came from,” he said.

Stars left for Botswana yesterday in preparation for the CAF Champions League preliminary round matches against Botswana league champions Jwaneng Galaxy.

With international matches still banned in Namibia due to CAF’s embargo of Namibia’s stadiums, both the ‘home’ and away matches will be played in Botswana.