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Stars want to retain league title 

Laudry Mukaba and Ronald Ketjijere of African Stars in action against Unam. Photo: Helge Schütz

Debmarine Premiership champions African Stars FC’s mentor, Ronnie Kanalelo, says the team’s objective to successfully retain the title is still alive and within reach.

With the 2024/25 football season first leg set to resume this weekend after a brief festive season break, he says: “There is a sense of entitlement, I think, to hear constant jittering about the team’s performance and fluctuations.

“My question is: Are we not performing, or did we fail to score against Unam FC, win against Cuca Tops FC and win against Julinho Sporting? I do not wish to discuss the Rundu trip since I was not present, but what I gathered from my technical team is that we defended poorly as individuals and we did not cease our goal-scoring opportunities.

“My overall assessment is clear: We are playing good football in creating goal-scoring opportunities. The problem, however, is that we are not scoring in those chances.

“Furthermore, most of our priority issues are on decision-making, technical implementation, and insufficient penetration from our attacking midfielders.

“From my side as a coach I ‘m happy with how the team plays. If we do not create chances, I would be worried, but so far, against Cuca Tops we had about four to five good chances.

“We did enough to win the match, but unfortunately we did not capitalise on the chances.”

Kanalelo says when he heard the scoreline against Julinho, he knew defensively the team did not do well.

“If you do not take chances, you will obviously have problems, and that is what happened against Julinho,” he says.

He says the only goal is to defend the title and win the league.

“As a coach I cannot run away from that. It is a responsibility I signed up for. We are pretty much in the race, but people must just get away from this notion that we are not performing.”

Kanalelo says during the match against Bucks Buccaneers (formerly Unam FC) his goalminder was not under pressure, but the opponent’s goalkeeper made brilliant saves and was named player of the match.

“But we did enough to win the game,” he says.

The defending champions will on Saturday resume the 2024/25 football season campaign against Young Brazilians, and against log leaders Khomas Nampol on Sunday.

Gobabis-based Young African FC owner Marley Ngarize says his charges are fully ready.

“All players reported for training last week and have been in training for the past 10 days. We will have our last training session today, and luckily we do not have injuries as all players are available.

“We are looking forward to having a great game against Khomas Nampol and against Young Brazilians, which is a wounded team.

“Yes, we played Khomas Nampol last season where we beat them and they beat us too. Now is a different season with new coaches, and our plan is to see if we can get four points over the weekend, if not the maximum points.”

Ngarizemo says players are in high spirits.

Bottom-rocked KK Palace, which have had a thorny awakening, will face Otjiwarongo-based Mighty Gunners at Mokati Stadium, while the relegation-prone outfit has a date with Okahandja United on Sunday.

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