Unam, Tigers share the spoils

UNAM managed to salvage a point with a late goal in a 1-1 draw against Tigers on Wednesday night.

Tigers took the lead on 16 minutes through an own goal by Unam defender Ananias Haitembu, but Unam struck back with a 84th minute equaliser by Edmund Kambanda.

In a rather uninspiring match of few chances, a draw was probably a fair result.

Tigers took the lead in fortuitous fashion when a shot by Mapenzi Muwanei was blocked by Unam keeper Charles Uirab and rebounded off Haitembu into the net.

Uirab redeemed himself with a fine diving save from a cracking shot by Heemezembi Hengombe, while Johannes Jackson came close with a long range effort.

Unam also had their chances with Tara Katupose heading over from a corner, while a curling free kick by Willem Mwedihanga was tipped over for a corner by Immanuel Immanuel.

Tigers brought on Absalom Iimbondi in the second half, while Unam brought on Marcel Papama, but neither side could break the deadlock.

The match seemed to be heading for a Tigers victory when Unam struck with a late attack. Tara Katupose ran onto a long ball, beat his defender and passed inside to Kambanda who steered the ball into the corner of the net.

It salvaged a point for Unam under new coach Woody Jacobs who was rather ambivalent about the result.

“A point gained or two points lost, it remains to be seen. Tonight we were very positive and we wanted to get three points, but we also came up against a very determined and resolute Tigers side who played very well. But from a team point of view I think my youngsters showed a lot of positives and I’m very happy for them. I think anyone who knows football wouldn’t have given them a chance against a Tigers team that had won three matches on the trot and also with a star studded line up like they have.

“Its not all rosy though, and there’s a lot of things that we need to rectify and build on. But it’s my first game in charge and I’m just happy that we don’t have that damaging effect of a loss and for some time it looked like that,” he said.

According to Jacobs, Tigers’ goal was off side and he called on the Namibia Premier League to raise the standards of refereeing in Namibia.

“I think the goal we conceded was offside, I saw the replay because we do video analysis and record our matches and it was offside. Our referees have come under a lot of scrutiny and people would say it’s sour grapes, but I think for a footballing nation to go forward we need to rectify these mistakes – we need to look at these things, we need to help each other and we need to grow,” he said.

“Even us as coaches, I don’t know when last we had a coaching course, so we also need to improve. I’m not going to fight a referee because of a decision he got wrong and I don’t think he favoured anybody in this instance, but sometimes they just get it wrong – it’s decisions they’ve got to make in split seconds.

Tigers’ coach Mervin Mbakera also preferred to take the positives from the match.

“At the end of the day it’s a point and one must remember it’s a marathon, so we never know when we might use this point, it might come in handy, so we cannot kick ourselves down.

“We wanted three points, it didn’t happen, but that’s not the end of the world. If you are in football you must be prepared to take a loss, a draw or a win. If you can’t take those three then you don’t belong in football,” he said.

He said Unam’s equaliser came from a lapse in concentration.

“Towards the end Unam got just one direct ball and we had a lapse of concentration and they equalised. But, it’s good that it was an individual error, because those you can correct and we hope to have a positive result against Life Fighters in Otjiwarongo this weekend,” he said.