Warriors get morale-boosting point

The Brave Warriors’ best display of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers came a few matches too late, head coach Collin Benjamin said following Wednesday’s scoreless clash with Cameroon.

Namibia matched five-time African champions Cameroon in their penultimate qualifier played at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa — the homeless Brave Warriors’ adopted home-patch.

Picking up their first point of the qualifying campaign after losing the first four is a morale booster and provides a foundation to build on, Benjamin said.

Although they hit a blank, Benjamin was pleased with how his side competed against the African giants.

“For this particular game, I think the morale, the energy, the discipline from my team was really, really intact,” Benjamin said when analysing the match.

“I think, obviously, getting out of a game and you have something in the hand, it’s always positive. It’s good for the morale, for the confidence of the boys, especially going to the next game.”

The result maintains Namibia’s good record against Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions, with a win each and two draws in the previous four meetings.

Even though results were not favourable, Benjamin contends that the Brave Warriors were not bad over the course of the qualifiers.

“I am honestly so convinced that we did have a good campaign,” he said.

“I think this game was not different from all the four that we previously played. Our intention was always to win, our intention was to qualify,” the coach continued.

“But yeah, it was not to be.

“In the other games was that we lost, I think, the energy, the hunger, the discipline for my team was throughout. It’s just the result was different,” Benjamin explained.

Namibia close of their Afcon qualifiers against Kenya at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, South Africa, on Tuesday.

They will hope to finish on a high and possibly leapfrog the East Africans, who take on Zimbabwe in their penultimate qualifying clash today.

“We take this one point and then we are going to regenerate for Tuesday. We are going to go full out against Kenya,” said Benjamin.

“We definitely also don’t want to end with one point. I think the growth of us as Namibia should still be on our cards where we want to play and get good results so that the team can grow and the boys can grow.”

Benjamin anticipates a favourable outcome for his charges on Tuesday and will take that momentum into the remainder of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

Namibia have made a fine start with eight points from a possible 12, and next face Malawi away and Equatorial Guinea at home in March.

They are two points behind pool leaders Tunisia with only the top side advancing automatically to the finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The four best second placed finishers across the nine pools advance to the second round of the African qualifying in November 2025, where one team will win a place in the inter-continental play-offs.