Warriors eye Tanzania or Uganda for friendly

THE Brave Warriors are expected to play another friendly match next month, possibly against Tanzania or Uganda in Windhoek, NFA chief executive officer Barry Rukoro confirmed.

Rukoro told The Namibian Sport that the Namibia Football Association (NFA) was currently in talks with the two countries on possible friendly matches that will fall on four Fifa dates in early October.The dates are from October 10 to 13 and, according to Rukoro, Namibia will make use of any of those to engage another country after the Brave Warriors were held to a 1-all draw by Swaziland in Windhoek last weekend, also in a friendly match.Rukoro said it was now difficult to get top African nations for Fifa international friendlies because most are engaged in World Cup qualifiers, while some which fell out, do not have the ambition of playing any further football.’We are trying to get the best possible teams always, but it is difficult. I can however confirm that Tanzania and Uganda are the two possible candidates that we are looking at and we might host them here,’ he said.Rukoro said money is not a problem since the Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) is now the official sponsor of the national team.Meanwhile, Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet says he would like to see more matches coming the way of the national team, to firstly improve their rankings, while it also gives the players more exposure to play on that level.He said although he would like to have stronger nations to consistently test the strength of the Warriors, he has no choice but to go with the available teams that can play them.If Namibia plays a friendly match on any of the Fifa dates next month, they will only have a few days in between before they go into the Cosafa Cup which will be hosted in Zimbabwe from October 17 to November 1.PLAYER AVAILABILITY Saintfiet said he will most likely go into the Cosafa Cup with only local-based players because most of his foreign-based players will be engaged in league activities.’I have to rely on the locals for that tournament and I have identified a group of players for it already. But for the Fifa friendly, I might get one or two foreign-based players depending on their availability, but at this stage, I cannot tell yet,’ he said.The foreign-based players are expected to be released for the international friendly matches according to Fifa rules.He said if he is lucky, he might get two or three Namibians who play in the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) for the Cosafa Cup matches, but it will be difficult to tell, as they might not be released for the tournament either.Some he says, might event have injuries and wont make them eligible.This time, Namibia will start the Cosafa Cup as quarter-finalists, after progressing to that stage last season when the tournament was held in South Africa.The Cosafa Cup features 14 southern African nations and the Zimbabwe Government has pledged U$1 million dollars for the event.The competition started in 1997 and over the years, it has lost popularity with different formats after the main sponsors, South African Breweries pulled out.Many countries field second-string sides as the dates fall outside the Fifa international calendar.corry@namibian.com.na