Warriors raring to go against Senegal

The Brave Warriors and their coach Ricardo Mannetti are raring to go when they take on Senegal in an Afcon 2017 qualifying match in Windhoek on Saturday afternoon.

After they lost their opening qualifier away to Niger in June, Namibia will have to win Saturday’s match to remain in contention for Afcon 2017, but they will face a tough opponent in Senegal.

They are ranked fifth in Africa and 39th in the world compared to Namibia’s 32 in Africa and 111 in the world, while their squad boasts numerous star players like Diafro Sakho of West Ham United, Sadio Mane of Southampton and Mame Biram Diouf of Stoke City.

Mannetti however exuded confidence at Tuesday morning’s training session, saying that his team was ready to give a great performance.

“Isn’t this why you play football. When you are young and start to play football isn’t this what you ware aiming for? We’ve been preparing for this for our whole lives, to play against a giant like Senegal, here at the Sam Nujoma Stadium with our fans behind us. So for me it’s a very important game as well as for the players – they want to match themselves against the best,” he said.

“I’m not going to put any pressure on them, but the only pressure they need is to push themselves and rate themselves against a team like Senegal, and I’m telling you if they do that and they are comfortable and confident on the ball, we will surprise Senegal,” he added.

Mannetti called on Namibia’s fans to support the Brave Warriors on Saturday, saying that they would see a great match.

“We are playing on our home pitch in front of our fans here in Windhoek so everything is going for us. We have a very confident team, a team that’s ready to go and they can’t wait – they really want to see how good they are, so I’m telling all the fans it’s going to be a very nice game to watch – let us all be brave and support this young team of ours,” he said.

Defender Willem Mwedihanga and striker Benson Shilongo sat out Tuesday’s training session with a foot and a head injury, respectively, and Mannetti said they would still be assessed by the medical team.

“The medical team is working hard on them and we are going for a few tests again today so by tomorrow we will know exactly where we stand. But having said that we have a good enough squad with a lot of versatile players and I have the utmost trust and faith in my players, so should they not recover, I’m sure that whoever will come in will do a sterling job,” he said.

It will be Mannetti’s first match in charge since he was re-appointed as Brave Warriors coach, but he said his two-month absence would not affect the team adversely.

“Not at all. You know, mental preparation and managing players is key at this level and our technical team are experts when it comes to that. Even the time when I was not around, I kept in touch with them and I have a very good relationship with all of these boys, even the ones in South Africa. We are very close and we have a good team spirit which was never compromised. They understand that it’s part of football and they are very mature so I’m just happy I have a professional bunch like them,” he said.

Saturday’s Afcon Group K qualifier starts at 14h30 at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, while tickets can be obtained via Computicket at Shoprite and Checkers.