The national senior football team “Brave Warriors” lost their second match of the Council of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup against Eswatini and are in a do-or-die situation against Botswana on Tuesday.

The 2023 Senior Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup is underway in Durban, South Africa. Namibia is drawn in Group A alongside Botswana, Eswatini and host nation South Africa.

In their second match at the championship, the Brave Warriors opened the scoring in the 34th minute through a brilliant free kick by Absalom Iimbindi but lost the match 2-1. Their hopes of qualifying for the next round of the competition are almost impossible.

Two goals in a space of three minutes from Eswatini in the first half turned the game on its head just before halftime. Sifiso Matse equalised for Eswatini and then almost immediately his teammate Bongwa Matsebula had them in front and they managed to hold on for the win.

With the defeat on Saturday afternoon for the Brave Warrior, this means that South Africa who won their match against Botswana earlier in the day heads the group with four points and will meet Eswatini next. Eswatini has three points, the same number as Botswana. Namibia has one point and is bottom of the group.

In an interview after the match, the Brave Warrior’s head coach Collin Benjamin said they dominated possession in the first half but failed to capitalise on their advantage.

“We got ourselves influenced by the players of Eswatini. They knew what they wanted and used that to their advantage and despite us taking the lead we did not put authority on the game which Eswatini did,” he said.

Benjamin added that his team got knocked on the day but they need to stand up and dust themselves off for their next encounter.

“We are looking at this new generation of players that we have to give time so that they can also grow to the standard we want them to be,” Benjamin said.

Only the top team in each pool qualifies automatically for the semi-finals of the Cosafa Cup along with the best-placed runner-up, so there is little margin for error. Namibia’s next match against Botswana will be at 18h00 on Tuesday at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency