Under-17s lacked money

LACK of funds and only seven days to prepare cost the Namibian ‘Baby Warriors’ dearly when they failed to progress to the semi-final stages of the Cosafa Under-17 tournament, which comes to an end on Saturday.

Despite winning their final group match 2-1 against Angola on Monday, Namibia did not garner enough goals to secure them a place in the semi-finals of the competition, which is being held in Namibia for the first time. The team had only ten days to prepare for the tournament but according to head coach Dominikus Kornelius, he used three days to hold trials, leaving only seven days to mould the team into a formidable unit for the event.He said he requested the Namibia Football Association (NFA) to hold trials and a training camp in September already, but was told that there was no money.”They said there was no money and we could thus not do anything.So we waited until the funds were available, but unfortunately it was just too late for us to prepare well,” he said.He said there were also numerous logistical problems such as proper training kit for the team, water bottles and proper nutrition for the players during the training sessions.He said this affected the spirit of the team and players were not focused enough to do the job during the matches.He said despite only having seven days to prepare and the hardships that went with it, he was happy with the performance of the players overall.”We really played well, but I just hope that next time we will have enough time to prepare so that we can put in a better performance.”The next matches for the youngsters are planned for June next year when a team from Germany’s Westphalia Region will visit Namibia for friendly matches.Kornelius, who is deputised by Willem Kapukare, said the team showed a lot of guts in their opening match against Zimbabwe, which they drew 1-all.”We could have won that match if it was not for chances we had that went astray.We could have scored more goals, but it was just not on for our strikers,” he said.In their second encounter against Swaziland which Namibia lost 3-1, Kornelius blamed the assistant referee for allowing two off-sides that led to the goals of the opposition.”The assistant referee from Mauritius disappointed on the day and cost us the match.In fact, he was sent back the following day for the errors he made,” said Kornelius.In their third match against Angola, Kornelius believes that the players did extremely well considering the more physical players of Angola, who also had a lot more skill than the locals.”They are on a much higher level than us, but the boys did well to win the match,” he said.The under -17s became the first Namibian side to beat Angola.The senior side has never beaten Angola before.Kapukare said he was happy with the overall performance of the team during the tournament.He however admitted that Namibia did not field its strongest side against Swaziland because several key players were injured.”The boys who played in the first match against Zimbabwe were not available for the second match and they could also not take part in any training sessions because of the injuries.But in the last match, there was a huge difference when they were all included against Angola,” he said.But Kapukare is confident about the future of the youngsters, saying that they are talented and most are potential future Brave Warriors.The four semi-finalists, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Malawi, were set to play their matches late yesterday.The final will be played on Saturday.The team had only ten days to prepare for the tournament but according to head coach Dominikus Kornelius, he used three days to hold trials, leaving only seven days to mould the team into a formidable unit for the event.He said he requested the Namibia Football Association (NFA) to hold trials and a training camp in September already, but was told that there was no money.”They said there was no money and we could thus not do anything.So we waited until the funds were available, but unfortunately it was just too late for us to prepare well,” he said.He said there were also numerous logistical problems such as proper training kit for the team, water bottles and proper nutrition for the players during the training sessions.He said this affected the spirit of the team and players were not focused enough to do the job during the matches.He said despite only having seven days to prepare and the hardships that went with it, he was happy with the performance of the players overall.”We really played well, but I just hope that next time we will have enough time to prepare so that we can put in a better performance.”The next matches for the youngsters are planned for June next year when a team from Germany’s Westphalia Region will visit Namibia for friendly matches.Kornelius, who is deputised by Willem Kapukare, said the team showed a lot of guts in their opening match against Zimbabwe, which they drew 1-all.”We could have won that match if it was not for chances we had that went astray.We could have scored more goals, but it was just not on for our strikers,” he said.In their second encounter against Swaziland which Namibia lost 3-1, Kornelius blamed the assistant referee for allowing two off-sides that led to the goals of the opposition.”The assistant referee from Mauritius disappointed on the day and cost us the match.In fact, he was sent back the following day for the errors he made,” said Kornelius.In their third match against Angola, Kornelius believes that the players did extremely well considering the more physical players of Angola, who also had a lot more skill than the locals.”They are on a much higher level than us, but the boys did well to win the match,” he said.The under -17s became the first Namibian side to beat Angola.The senior side has never beaten Angola before.Kapukare said he was happy with the overall performance of the team during the tournament.He however admitted that Namibia did not field its strongest side against Swaziland because several key players were injured.”The boys who played in the first match against Zimbabwe were not available for the second match and they could also not take part in any training sessions because of the injuries.But in the last match, there was a huge difference when they were all included against Angola,” he said.But Kapukare is confident about the future of the youngsters, saying that they are talented and most are potential future Brave Warriors.The four semi-finalists, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Malawi, were set to play their matches late yesterday.The final will be played on Saturday.