Warriors squad depleted

BRAVE Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet was highly upset yesterday, as four of his foreign-based players had not been released by their clubs ahead of Saturday’s friendly against the DR Congo in Windhoek.

Oliver Risser, who plays for Norwegian second-division club Manglerud Star, and his brother Wilko Risser, who plays for Eintracht Trier in the German fourth division, had not been released by their clubs by yesterday. Razundara Tjikuzu, who plays for Turkish Super League side Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyespor, had also not arrived for training, leaving Saintfiet with only seven foreign-based and 10 local players by late yesterday afternoon.’I’m very unhappy. We selected 25 players for a camp of five days to prepare us for a very strong DRC team who have been in camp for two weeks already, but till now I only have 17 players in camp of which three are goalkeepers,’ he said.’I don’t know if our players have arrived yet, we are still waiting for Razundara Tjikuzu, Wilko and Oliver Risser so I can’t have a tactical training session and I don’t know if they will come or when they will come, and how we have to prepare for the match against the DRC,’ he added.Saintfiet said he was still hopeful that they would join the Brave Warriors camp.’We expect them to arrive, because there is no reason why they will not arrive. The match takes place on an official Fifa date and the Fifa rule is clear that every player has to be released for a Fifa game so they have no choice. If they don’t come Fifa will ban the player from their team so they wont be able to play for their clubs this weekend. So that’s the Fifa rules for the big guys in Italy, Argentina and Spain, but also for us in Namibia, because the rules are for everyone.’’So I expect that they will arrive but on the other hand it’s also a problem because we can’t train tactically because we only have tomorrow and Friday left for such an important game, so what time do we have to train together?’Saintfiet said he rated the DR Congo very highly, adding that it would be his toughest test yet since taking over as Brave Warriors coach. ‘It’s a very important game for me and they will be our strongest opponents since my arrival. The DRC are the champions of the CHAN African tournament for home based players and you can compare them to teams like Nigeria or Cameroon. They have very good home based players who play for TP Mazembe who play in the African Champions League, while all the South African teams who have a lot of money, don’t play Champions League. Then they also have players abroad who play in top leagues in England, France and Belgium. So they have a very strong squad and it will be a very hard test for us,’ he said. Saintfiet also said that Sydney Plaatjies of Mamelodi Sundowns would also miss the match since he had not trained for the past few weeks. Of the initial foreign-based players that he called up, Michael Pienaar and Lazarus Kaimbi also withdrew due to injuries, while they could not make contact with midfielder Letu Shatimuene who plays in Angola. At the moment the only foreign-based players in the Warriors squad are goalkeepers Athiel Mbaha and Abisai Shiningayamwe, defenders George Hummel, Steven Goaxub, Richard Gariseb and Hartman Toromba, and midfielder Paulus Shipanga. – www.namibiasport.com.na