Shalulile out of Brave Warriors squad

The Brave Warriors leave for Johannesburg today in preparation for their upcoming Fifa World Cup qualifiers against Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome e Principe. 

Coach Collin Benjamin yesterday announced a 25-man squad for the upcoming matches, with the most notable omission being ace striker Peter Shalulile, who is nursing an injury.

Besides that, though, it is an experienced squad, which includes nine local-based players, who completed a 10-day training camp in Windhoek yesterday. They will be joined by most of Namibia’s foreign-based players in Johannesburg, before they fly out to the Equatorial Guinea capital, Malabo, on Sunday for their match on Wednesday, 15 November. Six days later they take on Sao Tome ePrincipe in Morocco, since the west African island nation, like Namibia, does not have a stadium that meets Fifa standards.

Following yesterday’s training session Benjamin said he was satisfied with their progress.

“The preparations have been going well – we’ve had a good 10 days preparation with our home-based professionals, and this morning we cut it to nine players who will join the 16 foreign-based players who will meet up either in SA or in Equatorial Guinea to prepare for the two matches,” he said.

“Obviously it’s important matches from a world cup perspective, but it’s also important matches before we select our final squad for Afcon in the Ivory Coast,” he added. 

Benjamin said he expected a strong challenge from the two west African nations, with Equatorial Guinea ranked 19th in Africa and 91st in the world, while Sao Tome e Principe are ranked 50th in Africa and 186th in the world. Namibia are ranked 27th in Africa and 114th in the world.

“I think Equatorial Guinea is much stronger than Namibian people believe – they’ve got a strong Spanish influence in their team, if you check their stats at Afcon, they went to the Afcon quarterfinals last year, they have good infrastructure and they are developing a good thing there,” he said. 

“It’s going to be difficult, but nontheless, as I said, we are trying to get our perfect squad for Afcon, so there’s a lot to play for, but at the same time we also want to check a few variations. We always want to stay compact, we want to be fast in our transitional phases, and we want to be variable in our attack, and we are using these games to raise our standard, where we can say we are 60 or 70 percent there for Afcon,” he added. 

“Sao Tome are obviously a west African country and they are very physical, but I still think our target is to get at least three or even four points from these matches. It’s going to be very difficult, but I think we have to set those targets to reach a certain level where we can really compete to say we are ready,” he said. 

Benjamin, meanwhile, said they plan to set up a training camp in Ghana ahead of their Afcon tournament where they will be based in the northern Ivory Coast town of Korhogo.

“Korhogo is nearly 750km north from Abidjan – it’s a very humid place, it has a similar vibe to Oshakati and Ongwediva, so it’s very hot, and it’s for those reasons that we have to do our camping and preparations in similar conditions,” he said. 

“That’s why my technical team and I thought that Ghana would be perfect, because they have similar weather conditions and besides that, it’s basically an hour’s flight from Accra to Abidjan. We are going to be tested to the limit physically and I’m also thinking from a doctor’s perspective, that a good 14 days preparations in those conditions will have our bodies and mindsets prepared for what we will be facing in the Ivory Coast,” he said. 

The Brave Warriors squad is as follows:

Goalies: Lloyd Kazapua, Kamaijanda Ndisiro, Mateus Jonas. 

Defenders: Ryan Nyambe, Ivan Kamberipa, Lubeni Haukongo, Simon Elago, Kennedy Amutenya, Denzil Haoseb, Charles Hambira, Ananias Gebhardt, Riaan Hanamub, Aprocius Petrus.

Midfielders: Ngero Katua, Petrus Shitembi, Prins Tjiueza, Romeo Kasume, Marcel Papama, Uetuuro Kambato. 

Strikers: Absalom Iimbondi, Bethuel Muzeu, Elmo Kambindu, Junior Petrus, Deon Hotto, Edmar Kamatuka.