Brave Warriors skipper confident for Afcon ’08

A VERY confident Michael ‘BMX’ Pienaar told The Namibian Sport yesterday that the team was very confident about their participation in the 26th Africa Cup of Nations tournament, which kicks off in Ghana on Sunday.

The Brave Warriors captain even went as far as saying that the players have targeted their opening encounter against former champions Morocco on Monday as the one match that they want to win very badly. Said Pienaar: “The mood in the camp is very excellent and the confidence from the players is sky high.We are looking forward to representing the country in Ghana and everybody back home can rest assured that we are going to compete.”Team morale was boosted very much during our recent friendly series and I can assure you that we are going to give this tournament our best.We want to leave a lasting impression for the rest of the continent and we are full of confidence.”The reliable defender added that the players have put their sights on their opening match against the Atlas Lions of Morocco for their first win of the tournament.”It may sound like we are over ambitious but believe me we are going to run our legs off against Morocco to register our first win for the country in the Afcon finals.We are not intimidated by Morocco’s pedigree in continental football.”Neither are we going to sit back and allow them to slaughter us because we are not going to be anybody’s whipping boy.We are inspired by our form during our last warm-up match against Senegal in Dakar,” the towering star noted.Pienaar, who plays club football for Ramblers FC in the local Premier League, vowed that the players will not settle for anything less than a win against Morocco, “because a win will open other avenues for us and three points could be handy,” he said.He admitted that his team will lack badly in experience when they start their first match of the tournament in Accra on Monday, but added that his team-mates are a bunch of talented players who possess great talent.”We did not qualify for the Afcon on a free ticket, nor did we have an easy passage because we did it by finishing top of our qualifying group.No one gave us a chance against the star-studded Democratic Republic of Congo.”But it is open fact today that they had to perform at the best of their ability to beat us 3-2 in Kinshasa, and they were lucky to do so, before we held them to a 1-all draw in Windhoek to put ourselves in pole position to qualify,” Pienaar said.The Brave Warriors then went on to defeat Ethiopia 3-2 in Addis Ababa in sensational fashion to book their Afcon place and they are now pitted in Group A against host Ghana, Morocco and Guinea.Namibia will have the chance to engage the might of Ghana in their second match of the finals on Thursday, January 24 before they lock horns against Guinea on Monday, January 28 in what could be a very tricky encounter for the Brave Warriors.While Pienaar and his team-mates know more or less what to expect from giants Ghana and Morocco, who are boosted by some of world football’s top stars, Guinea, who have made inroads in continental football lately, are an unknown quantity.But it is the two top guns that the Brave Warriors are aiming at “because we can easily plan against Ghana and Morocco because we know their players but Guinea remains a closed book because we will only know them when we play against them,” the no-nonsense and inspirational defender said.He said the Brave Warriors could look forward to a dream tournament if they work on certain aspects of their game, like concentration and tactical discipline, because they tend to concede goals in the later stages of the match.”We have the players like Letu Shatimuene, Meraai Swartbooi, Collin Benjamin and Quinton Botes to unlock the opposition defence but we must also work hard to keep our defence rock solid.That clearly needs a huge team effort,” Pienaar said.* Meanwhile, the money dispute between the players and the Namibia Football Association was settled amicably after the NFA reportedly bowed to player pleasure to meet their demands.The players apparently threatened to boycott the tournament.Said Pienaar: “The mood in the camp is very excellent and the confidence from the players is sky high.We are looking forward to representing the country in Ghana and everybody back home can rest assured that we are going to compete.”Team morale was boosted very much during our recent friendly series and I can assure you that we are going to give this tournament our best.We want to leave a lasting impression for the rest of the continent and we are full of confidence.”The reliable defender added that the players have put their sights on their opening match against the Atlas Lions of Morocco for their first win of the tournament.”It may sound like we are over ambitious but believe me we are going to run our legs off against Morocco to register our first win for the country in the Afcon finals.We are not intimidated by Morocco’s pedigree in continental football.”Neither are we going to sit back and allow them to slaughter us because we are not going to be anybody’s whipping boy.We are inspired by our form during our last warm-up match against Senegal in Dakar,” the towering star noted.Pienaar, who plays club football for Ramblers FC in the local Premier League, vowed that the players will not settle for anything less than a win against Morocco, “because a win will open other avenues for us and three points could be handy,” he said.He admitted that his team will lack badly in experience when they start their first match of the tournament in Accra on Monday, but added that his team-mates are a bunch of talented players who possess great talent.”We did not qualify for the Afcon on a free ticket, nor did we have an easy passage because we did it by finishing top of our qualifying group.No one gave us a chance against the star-studded Democratic Republic of Congo.”But it is open fact today that they had to perform at the best of their ability to beat us 3-2 in Kinshasa, and they were lucky to do so, before we held them to a 1-all draw in Windhoek to put ourselves in pole position to qualify,” Pienaar said.The Brave Warriors then went on to defeat Ethiopia 3-2 in Addis Ababa in sensational fashion to book their Afcon place and they are now pitted in Group A against host Ghana, Morocco and Guinea.Namibia will have the chance to engage the might of Ghana in their second match of the finals on Thursday, January 24 before they lock horns against Guinea on Monday, January 28 in what could be a very tricky encounter for the Brave Warriors.While Pienaar and his team-mates know more or less what to expect from giants Ghana and Morocco, who are boosted by some of world football’s top stars, Guinea, who have made inroads in continental football lately, are an unknown quantity.But it is the two top guns that the Brave Warriors are aiming at “because we can easily plan against Ghana and Morocco because we know their players but Guinea remains a closed book because we will only know them when we play against them,” the no-nonsense and inspirational defender said.He said the Brave Warriors could look forward to a dream tournament if they work on certain aspects of their game, like concentration and tactical discipline, because they tend to concede goals in the later stages of the match.”We have the players like Letu Shatimuene, Meraai Swartbooi, Collin Benjamin and Quinton Botes to unlock the opposition defence but we must also work hard to keep our defence rock solid.That clearly needs a huge team effort,” Pienaar said.* Meanwhile, the money dispute between the players and the Namibia Football Association was settled amicably after the NFA reportedly bowed to player pleasure to meet their demands.The players apparently threatened to boycott the tournament.