Warriors in confident mood ahead of Lusaka clash

The Brave Warriors leave for Zambia on Wednesday in confident mood ahead of their CHAN return leg match in Lusaka on Saturday.

Namibia hold a slight advantage going into the second leg after they won the first leg 2-1 in Windhoek on 22 June. On that occasion, Zambia held a 1-0 lead at halftime after an early goal, but Namibia struck back with two spectacular goals by Willy Stephanus and Benyamin Nenkavu to win the match 2-1 and will now take a crucial lead into the second leg encounter.

At Tuesday morning’s training session, caretaker coach Ronny Kanalelo said the spirit was high amongst the players and they were confident of doing well on Saturday.

“We started training on Thursday last week , and I must say, the players came back with a lot of energy and a positive spirit and they have been in the right frame of mind at training. So I’m positive that we will get a good result on Saturday,” he said.

The Namibian squad received a setback with the unavailability of star winger Willy Stephanus who has left for trials in Thailand but Kanalelo said they would find a solution.

“Obviously Willy was quite strong on the right side with his individual abilities and getting goals from that area but I’m sure we will find a solution. We will work around the team to find someone that will be able to keep the ball for us – we have to be very strong when we go forward in terms of keeping the ball. That’s the starting point and we will always give ourselves a chance to go into the next phase.”

Kanalelo said their one-goal advantage would not inhibit their approach for Saturday’s match.

“Well, 2-1 means it’s actually still 0-0. We’ll take the 2-1 lead but anything is possible. Zambia will go into the match saying, OK, we have an away goal advantage, so let’s make use of it and make sure that they don’t score goals, and based on that we’ll go all out and attack and get that goal that we need.

“But we are not going to sit back and hope that nothing happens now – we have to make things happen and go there and try and get goals – we have to be aggressive when we have the ball and also when we don’t have the ball,” he added.

Kanalelo said they would take the game to Zambia and would not stand back for their hosts.

“We will have to defend well and then play on the break and build up to create more opportunities for us. So we won’t go there to make it happen for Zambia and say OK you can throw the punches and we will just stand there and block your punches, no, no, no! If they punch one, we’ll punch two, and if they punch two, we’ll try and go one step further each time – that’s our mentality,” he said.

Besides Stephanus, Neville Tjiueza is also unavailable due to injury, while Brian Gurirab has been dropped after he failed to turn up for training. Striker Sadney Urikhob also injured his ankle and still had to undergo a fitness test last night.

Orlando Pirates striker Terdius Uiseb and African Stars defender Ferdinand Karongee have been drafted into the 20-man squad that will travel to Zambia.

The full squad is as follows:

Charles Uirab, Lloyd Kazapua, Edward Maova, Tiberius Lombaard, Denis Tjetinda, Denzil Haoseb, Ananias Gebhardt, Gregory Aukumeb, Ferdinand Karongee, Charles Hambira, Dynamo Fredericks, Peter Shalulile, Benyamin Nenkavu, Absalom Imbondi, Wangu Gome, Heini Isaacks, Itamunua Keimuine, Joslin Kamatuka, Sadney Urikhob and Terdius Uiseb.

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