Murphy’s Law curtails Namibia at Cosafa

THE Junior Gladiators were not as bad as the 4-0 loss incurred against Zimbabwe suggests, head coach Marvin Mbakera said after his side was eliminated from the Cosafa Women’s under-20 Championship on Monday.But, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, he conceded.

The Young Mighty Warriors took full advantage of defensive frailties that have plagued Namibia throughout the tournament, going on a first-half rampage to secure a semi-final birth alongside Group A winners South Africa, who trumped Mozambique 3-1 to maintain their 100% record.

“It’s just unfortunate really, the scoreline is really not a good reflection of the game. It’s like somebody hit you, and you don’t even know where it came from. Everything went wrong,” Mbakera said.

Talent Bizeki put Zimbabwe ahead with a looping long-range shot in the 16th minute, before Dinah Banda capitalised on a mix- up to make it 2-0. In the 38th minute, Praynence Zvawanda extended the lead when she headed in a rebound after Namibian goalkeeper Meagan Schuster spilled a cross. Banda then rode several meek challenges to complete her brace on the stroke of half- time.

Namibia came back from the break a little more organised in midfield, but the damage had already been done.

“The Zimbabwean girls were physical. We needed to change our game plan because we could not match their physicality. When we changed, in the second half it was much better.”

The Junior Gladiators continued the disappointing Cosafa theme for Namibia, with the Brave Gladiators, who face lowly Mauritius in a dead-rubber today, also falling at the first hurdle following back-to-back losses to Zambia and Botswana.

The under-20 tournament was not all doom and gloom for Namibia, who showed grit and composure to come back from 1-0 down at half-time in their first match to beat Mozambique 2-1.

That result was followed by another battling display against South Africa’s Basetsana on Saturday when they lost 1-0.

Mbakera lamented the errors at the back which led to both goals in those matches. That frailty in defence was brutally exploited by Zimbabwe yesterday.

“The only legitimate goal that I can count was the first goal. The other three goals are purely individual mistakes,” Mbakera recounted.

“We just have to take the positives; remember this is a new team that we recently assembled because all the other girls have progressed to the seniors. So, this is a work in progress. I think in our first two games, we were magnificent.”

He believes the experience gained during the inaugural Cosafa Women’s u20 Championship has been invaluable for his novices.

“There are lots of positives and improvement that I can talk about until tomorrow. I think this is a good initiative for Cosafa.

“This is the only way for the SADC region to expose the girls to the international level. Now, we can start challenging the west, east and north African countries so that we have more SADC representatives in Olympic and World Cup games,” added Mbakera.