Heavy defeats expose cracks in Namibia’s teams

Namibia’s national football teams have endured a difficult run across different levels of competition, suffering a string of heavy defeats that have raised fresh questions about preparation, player selection, technical capacity and the overall state of the country’s football development.

Namibia’s Under-23 side suffered a 5-0 defeat to Angola, while the senior national team, the Brave Warriors, lost 1-0 to Comoros in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers before suffering an emphatic 6-0 defeat to Russia in an international friendly.

The women’s senior national team, the Brave Gladiators, were also beaten 4-1 by Botswana, while the Under-20 side lost 4-0 and 3-0 to Zambia and Mozambique, respectively.

The sequence of results has prompted local football pundits to question whether Namibia’s national teams are being given adequate preparation and whether the country has the technical structures and player depth required to compete against better-prepared opponents.

Local pundit Kavee Vezemburuka said Namibia’s heavy defeats in football largely stem from inadequate preparation time. “Over the years, this has consistently appeared to be one of the main reasons for our poor results. How can a team train for only a week and be expected to compete against an opponent that has been in camp for three weeks or even a month?”

He said another contributing factor is the delay in starting the domestic league.

“Another contributing factor is the delay in starting our domestic league. While leagues around the world are already underway, ours often takes months to begin. As a result, our players are not fit or match-ready when they are called upon to represent the country in major competitions. If we take an unprepared team to such tournaments, we should not be surprised by heavy defeats. Until we address these issues, the status quo will remain,” he said.

Vezemburuka also called for a broader approach to player selection, saying all eligible players should be given an equal opportunity to represent the country. “We must also give all eligible players an equal opportunity to represent the country. Namibian players abroad are performing well and deserve to be considered for selection. We cannot continue relying on the same team for three years when there has been no success. Changes are necessary, and in many cases, they can make a significant difference. For example, when South Africa went to the World Cup, the coach selected some unfamiliar faces and left out several established players who had been the team’s backbone. The team went on to perform well and win the hearts of many supporters,” Vezemburuka explained. He said Namibia cannot keep suffering heavy defeats without taking corrective action.

“We have suffered heavy defeats and remained quiet, as if nothing serious had happened,” he added.

Vezemburuka further called on the Namibia Football Association (NFA) to bring all the national teams’ technical teams together to assess what went wrong and find ways of preventing similar results in the future.

He said the recent results should serve as a wake-up call for the country’s football authorities.

“We need to bring all the technical teams together to discuss what went wrong and how we can prevent such embarrassing results from happening again,” he said.

Technical expertise questioned

Another football pundit, who chose to remain anonymous, questioned the level of technical expertise available to Namibia’s national teams, arguing that there are not enough experience and expertise on the technical benches.

The pundit also questioned whether all members of the technical teams have the appropriate qualifications and experience for the levels at which they are working. The pundit pointed to the Brave Warriors’ technical team as an example, saying the team has only four technical members, including the head coach, assistant coach, fitness coach and goalkeeper coach. By comparison, the pundit pointed to Kenya’s U/17 national team, which, according to the pundit, arrived with 14 coaches.

The pundit further raised concerns about the qualifications of the Brave Warriors’ assistant coach, claiming that he had not previously coached at that level and had only recently obtained a CAF C licence, while the relevant regulations, according to the pundit, require a CAF A licence.

The pundit also believes the Warriors require a major shake-up, including changes to the playing squad. “The team also needs a shake-up. Players are past their prime. And also, preparation time for national teams is pathetic considering who they must compete against,” the pundit concluded.

The contrasting views from the two pundits point to several issues that require attention, including the timing of domestic competitions, national-team preparation, player selection, technical qualifications, coaching depth and the development of a sustainable pathway from junior national teams to the senior sides.

-lmupetami@nepc.

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