adminNAMIBIA’S Brave Warriors survived a first half scare before rallying from behind to see off enthusiastic Seychelles and secure a Cosafa Cup quarter-final berth in a lively Group A encounter at Nkoloma Stadium here yesterday.
The Brave Warriors twice came from behind in the opening period before stamping their authority in the second half to become the first team to qualify from the group games in this year’s tournament.
Namibia will now face South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in a potentially explosive showdown on July 13 the same day that champions Zimbabwe will begin their title defence with a clash against Tom Saintfiet and Malawi at the same venue.
Yet the Brave Warriors, who arrived at this tournament buoyed by their gallant 1-1 draw against African champions Nigeria in a World Cup qualifier, were stunned by the manner in which Seychelles took the game to them in the first half.
Namibia’s youthful coach Ricardo Manetti kept faith in the team that beat Mauritius 2-1 in the tournament’s opening game on Saturday.
But his Brave Warriors missed a couple of early chances before being punished in the 13th minute when Seychelles’ double scorer and striker Yves Zialor headed the Indian Ocean islanders ahead .
Zialor rose unmarked to plant a firm header past a static Namibia goalkeeper Virgill Vries who had earlier done well to block a curling effort from winger Collin Esther.
The Brave Warriors then drew level 12 minutes later via a brilliant effort by Sadney Urikhob from an angled shot.
The striker created a pocket of space for himself after gliding past advancing Seychelles goalkeeper Dave Mussard and with no Namibian red shirt closing in to support he took aim at goal from a tight angle with the ball striking the inside of the upright post before it found its mark.
Seychelles, Africa’s least populated country, then found themselves in the lead again after 37 minutes when the dreadlocked Zialor struck for the second time, albeit in fortuitous fashion.
A long searching ball was sent through the middle from the back and as Zialor and a Brave Warriors defender charged for possession, goalkeeper Vries somehow chose to race out of his box but he made a mess of his intended clearance that did not go anywhere.
Zialor gladly took the gift and had the simple task of prodding the ball home into an empty net.
Namibia drew level for the second time on the afternoon when defender Ananias Gerbhardt found the first of his two goals.
Gerbhardt took advantage of some confusion between the Seychelles defenders to stab home from a crowded box four minutes before the break and the Brave Warriors defender, later voted Man of the Match added his second of the day soon after the break.
Any hopes that Seychelles could force a dramatic end to this encounter were dashed three minutes from time when substitute Neville Tjiueza rifled home a rising shot after a six-minute blitz of sustained Namibian pressure.
Namibia’s second victory yesterday also rendered academic the Indian Ocean island derby clash between Seychelles and Mauritius tomorrow.
“We have a lot of history between us and matches against South Africa are always big and very important to Namibia and this game will be a special game for us and for South Africa and it goes beyond the Cosafa Cup because even economically there is an attachment between our countries,’’ Manetti said.
“We are using the Cosafa Cup to restore our pride and place in the region and I think after our last two games we have started to regain the respect that we deserve.
“In the first game against Mauritius we created about 10 chances and only took two, today we created almost the same number of chances and took four of them and that is an improvement.
“We also looked at how Ghana created a lot of chances against Chile (at the on-going Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Turkey) and realised that in football that is the philosophy, you need to keep creating those chances and then try to convert as many of them as possible,’’ Manetti said.
Seychelles’ Dutch coach Jan Mark was satisfied with the way his charges had fought bravely and felt they could have upstaged Namibia had they not made too many unforced errors especially and fizzled out in the late stages of the game.
Online Reporter