‘This is huge’ – Benjamin

Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin saluted his team and technical staff on a great job under very difficult circumstances after Namibia qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals for only the fourth time in history on Tuesday night. 

Cameroon beat Burundi 3-0 in the northern Cameroonian city of Garoua to finish on top of Group C on seven points and book their ticket to next year’s Afcon finals in the Ivory Coast. Namibia also qualified after finishing second on five points, edging out Burundi who finished third on four points.

What made Namibia’s achievement quite extraordinary is the fact that they had to play all their matches away from home due to inadequate stadiums, with their ‘home matches’ being played in Johannesburg. 

“This is huge. To have qualified for the Afcon finals under these circumstances is amazing and I think we can really be proud of ourselves, it’s really well deserved,” Benjamin said yesterday. 

“To have qualified after playing outside the country for the past three years is a very unusual situation and its actually quite unbelievable, I don’t think any other team has done that,” he added. 

“Emotionally it’s very draining on the players to play their home games in front of empty stadiums and it’s actually a psychological advantage for the opponents,” he said. 

“When you play in front of your own fans they push you to do your best and they hold you accountable. This has been the most difficult qualification ever, but now that it has been achieved it’s just a huge relief,” he added. 

Burundi started the match stronger and could well have taken the lead in the first half had it not been for some great saves by Cameroon’s goalkeeper Andre Onana. 

Cameroon, however, took control in the second half, with Bryan Mbeumo scoring after only 25 seconds, while further goals by Christopher Wooh and Vincent Aboubakar sealed their victory and sent the 30 000-capacity crowd into raptures. 

“I knew Cameroon would come back stronger in the second half, because it’s not easy to play there. In the first half there was a bit of uncertainty on their side and Burundi were fighting all the way, but the conditions are very tough in Cameroon,” Benjamin said. 

Draw on 12 October 

Cameroon’s victory completed the 2023 Afcon qualifying campaign, with 24 nations booking their place at the finals due to take place in the Ivory Coast from 13 January to 11 February next year. 

The draw for the finals will be held in Abidjan on 12 October when the teams will be divided into six groups of four teams each. 

Namibia are yet to win a match at the Afcon finals, but Benjamin said he was not even thinking about that now. 

“I’m not looking ahead to try and set any targets yet – for now I’m just soaking this in and thinking about the preparations that need to be done ahead of the Afcon finals,” he said. 

“It’s going to be very tough mentally for the players and everyone involved and we will definitely need the government to come on board. Of course we want to do better, but our preparation will be key and we will need to have at least a three-week camp ahead of the finals, preparing in similar conditions to the Ivory Coast where it’s hot and humid,” he said. 

“We will be playing against the cream of the crop of Africa, so we will need to play at least four or five friendlies, which will enable especially some of our younger boys like Prins Tjiueza, Junior Petrus and Edmar Kamatuka to grow in experience,” he said. 

Ricardo Mannetti, who represented the Brave Warriors as a player at the 1998 finals and as head coach at the 2019 finals congratulated Benjamin and his squad, but added that they must learn from previous mistakes. 

“It’s good to see that we have broken our usual 10-year cycle of competing at Afcon, after our previous appearances in 1998, 2008 and 2019. I’d like to congratulate Collin and his technical team, as well as the normalisation committee on this achievement,” he said. 

“We now have an experienced technical team and squad, with the core of the players now going to their second Afcon finals, which has not happened before, so we need to learn from our previous mistakes when we were not experienced enough,” he added. 

“The preparation needs to be on point and there has to be enough funding for player payments and bonusses, so that they are properly motivated and that we don’t have a situation where they might go on strike,” he said. 

“We need everyone to come on board to support the team, from the government to the private sector, we must all stand behind this team. We now have a great chance to reach the knockout stages of the finals with a settled, mature and experienced squad, so that will be my challenge to them,” he added. 

The chief administrator of the Namibia Sport Commission, Freddy Mwiya, said it was great news for the nation at large. 

“This is great news that we have been waiting for – our own Brave Warriors have made it and they deserve this qualification. We should now just work hard to promote sport and bring unity to the country through sport. I’d like to thank all our affiliates for a great job – sport in this coutry has grown, Namibian teams are now competitive and our time has arrived,” he added. 

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