Six picked from Newspaper Cup for under 20 squad

COACH of the under 20 football team Smithley Engelbrecht identified six players to be included in his squad, after The Namibian Newspaper Cup that was held at Oshakati over the Easter weekend.

So far, two players were due to travel with the team to Botswana yesterday, to play in the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) Youth Championship in that country on Saturday. Erastus Someno and Barros Luciano who both played in defence for the Kavango regional team trained with the team from Tuesday.The other players identified are Nangula Shivute from Karas, Etienne Beukes, Brian Brendell and Abraham Eichab, all from Hardap.The players from Hardap were initially supposed to play in the final match of the competition against Khomas on Monday, but Engelbrecht wanted them to leave the competition and return to the capital for the training camp.This caused an uproar among him and the officials of Hardap.He told The Namibian Sport that he had a crisis in the camp and wanted the players to join as soon as possible.But the officials of Hardap refused to release the players arguing that the final match against Khomas on Monday was important as the players worked hard to get there.Engelbrecht ruled them out for the Botswana match, arguing that they did not train with the squad as a unit from Saturday.Engelbrecht said despite the absence of the Hardap players for the Botswana match on Saturday, he will include them in the next encounter against Mozambique a week after.The under 20’s are expected to play in a Zone Six competition under the auspices of the Council of African Football Associations (Cosafa).”They will join us in Botswana before we leave for Mozambique,” he said.Erastus Someno and Barros Luciano who both played in defence for the Kavango regional team trained with the team from Tuesday.The other players identified are Nangula Shivute from Karas, Etienne Beukes, Brian Brendell and Abraham Eichab, all from Hardap.The players from Hardap were initially supposed to play in the final match of the competition against Khomas on Monday, but Engelbrecht wanted them to leave the competition and return to the capital for the training camp.This caused an uproar among him and the officials of Hardap.He told The Namibian Sport that he had a crisis in the camp and wanted the players to join as soon as possible.But the officials of Hardap refused to release the players arguing that the final match against Khomas on Monday was important as the players worked hard to get there.Engelbrecht ruled them out for the Botswana match, arguing that they did not train with the squad as a unit from Saturday.Engelbrecht said despite the absence of the Hardap players for the Botswana match on Saturday, he will include them in the next encounter against Mozambique a week after.The under 20’s are expected to play in a Zone Six competition under the auspices of the Council of African Football Associations (Cosafa).”They will join us in Botswana before we leave for Mozambique,” he said.