Hope in defeat for the Warriors

DESPITE suffering a 1-0 defeat to Mali in Bamako on Friday night, the Brave Warriors will draw hope from a fine performance for the rest of their Afcon qualifying campaign.

With the two nations’ return leg coming up in Windhoek on Tuesday evening, Namibia, in fact, will be confident of a home victory, which will put them right back in contention for a place at the Afcon finals in Cameroon next year.

With Guinea beating Chad 1-0 on Thursday evening, Guinea now lead the log on seven points, followed by Mali on six and Namibia on three, while Chad must still open their account.

On Friday, Chad took the win after a 32nd minute penalty by El Bilal Toure, and although they dominated possession, they didn’t threaten much, while Namibia created several chances of their own.

Namibia coach Bobby Samaria surprised by starting regular captain and midfield maestro Petrus Shitembi on the bench, in stead going for a more defensive midfield including Alfeus Handura, Ananias Gebhardt and Denzil Haoseb.

Namibia were soon summoned to defend in a fiesty start with Haoseb and Vitapi Ngaruka winning some hard tackles, while Larry Horaeb was yellow carded after only six minutes for a foul.

Mali had the first real chance when they won a corner midway through the first half, but Namibian keeper Virgil Vries brought off a fine reflex save to keep a header out.

Peter Shalulile went down in the box after a good run in the 29th minute but the referee waved play on. Two minutes later, however, he pointed to the spot when Larry Horaeb impeded El Bilal Toure and the referee awarded Mali a penalty, with Toure doing the honours to send Virgil Vries the wrong way.

Peter Shalulile nearly equalised for Namibia when he beat Mali’s keeper Djigui Diarra to a high ball, but his shot was cleared off the line. The match, however, was increasingly being interrupted as Mali’s players regularly went down to challenges, much to coach Samaria’s dismay and protestations.

He finally brought Shitembi on at the start of the second half in place of Dynamo Fredericks, with the stalwart equalling Ronald Ketjijere’s record 74 caps for Namibia, and along with another substitute, Absalom Iimbondi, on for Alfeus Handura, Namibia soon went on the offensive.

At the other end, Mali pounced onto a poor back-pass by Ryan Nyambe, but Vries brought off a fine save, while Nyambe redeemed himself with some tight marking on El Bilal Toure.

Midway through the second half Namibia had a big shout for a penalty after Moussa Djenepo appeared to push Larry Horaeb in the box, but the referee in stead booked Horaeb. He didn’t appear to realise that it was Horaeb’s second yellow card, and three minutes later Samaria brought him off in place of Elmo Kambindu just to be safe.

Namibia nearly equalised after a great back-heel by Shitembi went narrowly wide, while Ngaruka came to the rescue at he other end when he cleared a shot off the line.

In the closing stages, Iimbondi came close after a fine run, while a great chance by Shalulile went narrowly wide as Mali held on for a narrow win.