Warriors up for Cosafa

BRAVE Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet named a well-balanced 25-man squad for the Cosafa Senior Challenge, which will be held in Zimbabwe this month.

He said the squad would be trimmed to 20 players before they leave for Harare on October 22.The squad, which consists of mostly local-based players, goes into camp on October 18 and will have six only days to practise as a team before taking on Zambia in their first match on October 25.Namibia start their campaign in the quarter-finals due to their higher ranking by Fifa (101st in the world), but Saintfiet considers Zambia as the favourites.’They have some of the best and experienced players who are currently playing in the Champions League and will obviously have an added advantage due to that. We will however go out there and try to beat them to make further progress in the competition. I don’t want to make excuses here, but we have to be realistic on the strength of the opposition and I think we have selected a strong squad which can also play competitively,’ he said.Saintfiet reached the quarterfinals of the competition last year and his charges lost out to a South African Development side which went on to win the tournament against Mozambique.This time, the Belgian coach will aim at reaching the finals after being provided with an easier path of starting at the quarter-final stage.The players who made it to the squad this time are Ramblers midfielder Mekondjo Tobias, Orlando Pirates midfield genius Meraai Swartbooi and Black Africa goalkeeper Arnold Subeb.Others who also made an impression during the past few matches in the MTC premiership include striker Edward Damaseb, Romanus Shilongo (both Orlando Pirates), Tara Katupose and Muna Katupose (both Eleven Arrows), while the young Sidney Urikhob (Orlando Pirates) has also been thrown in the deep end to complete the 25-man squad. Saintfiet said they had to put a squad together as Cosafa officials requested the names of probable players for the competition by October 8. He said several other local players would be considered in the run-up to the tournament.INFO BLACKOUTAt a tense press conference the rather prickly coach first hit out at some reporters, accusing them of writing negative stories about the team without even studying the tactics and systems that he uses, while claiming that some do not even attend matches that they report on. He once again defended his side, saying that they played extremely well against Swaziland in the first half despite a 1-all draw during a Fifa international friendly in Windhoek.The result was however not the true reflection of the calibre of players Saintfiet had in his side, of which about 50 per cent were foreign-based internationals.To further vent his frustration on the negative publicity he received after that match, Saintfiet yesterday flatly refused to answer a question by this reporter regarding the stance of the selectors on Namibian professionals playing for top Angolan clubs.He said he would not answer the question because of the constant negativity of the newspaper, especially in regard to the performance of the national team.The question was left unanswered and Saintfiet, who clearly looked agitated, requested another journalist to ask questions instead. At this point, there is no clarity on whether well-established and credible players such as Brian Gurirab, Riaan Cloete, Letu Shatimuene and Costa Khaiseb will ever be considered for the Warriors.At the same time, NFA chief executive officer Barry Rukoro stood by Saintfiet, saying that it was the prerogative of the coach to choose what questions to answer and which ones to avoidHe did not explain whether they realised that the information was in fact meant for the public and not for The Namibian as a newspaper.ORDER OF PLAY Meanwhile, Tanzania have officially withdrawn from the 2009 Cosafa Castle Challenge, citing a clash of fixtures with their domestic League competition.The change to the line-up means that Group A will now have just three teams, consisting of hosts Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Lesotho, cutting three matches from the schedule in Harare.There will now be just match per day, with Zimbabwe taking on Mauritius on October 17, before tackling Lesotho two days later. The group fixtures will be rounded out with a clash between Mauritius and Lesotho on October 21.The team with the most points after the three matches will move forward to the quarterfinals, where they will meet the top team in Group B, to be hosted in Bulawayo. Swaziland, Comoros, Seychelles and Botswana battle it out in that pool. corry@namibian.com.na