U/20 NOT CONVINCING – 20/04/2008

The Namibia U/20 National Team failed to live up to the expectation of the public in their first match in the African Youth Championship against their Botswana counterparts on Friday, at the Khomasdal Stadium, in Windhoek.  

The match started like a house on fire with Namibia taking all the early initiatives.  It was no surprise when the home team took the lead through its main and only striking threat, Eusobio Fredericks.  Botswana however did not panic and stuck to their game plan and continued to keep as much position as possible and slowly started to climb back into the match.   The visitors actually started to take control of the match and an equalizing goal started to look eminent the closer the match got to the break.  Coach Bobby Samaria must have sighed for relief when his team went into half time still a goal up.

The second half saw Botswana taking off where they left it in the first half.  They took total control of the midfield and did all the attacking while Namibia was forced into defending.  The times that Namibia went forward attacking the opposition goal the strikers looked totally lost, falling all over the place.  Namibia’s players looked totally overpowered by their more physical opponents.  It was no surprise when the visitors scored the equalizing goal from what looked to be an innocent ball into the box.

It was clear from that moment that the home team was a spend force and a winning goal will be a miracle.  The team will play the return match in Gaborone on the 4th May 2008. It is quite a challenge for the young team to overturn the result away from home, particularly seeing the way the Botswana team has performed in the first match, but football is a game of miracles.