Swallows win Khomas Debmarine Cup – advance to next stage of competition
NFA – Debutants Swallows Football Academy were crowned champions of the 2018 Debmarine Namibia Cup Khomas Preliminaries to advance to next stage of the lucrative football competition in the country.
In the final match played at the Independence Stadium on Sunday, Swallows and Eleven Champions faced off and after playing to a three-all draw, it was down to penalties and it was the youngsters of Swallows that held their nerves as they won 4-3 in the shoot-out and took home the N$20,000 prize monies as well as place in the next elimination round or lucky enough in the Round of last 32 of the 2018 Debmarine Namibia Cup.
As regional winners Swallows will have to wait and see if they get drawn to play in another second divisions eliminator that will pit two regional winners against each other for a place in the Round of 32 as only 13 second division clubs should be in the hat for the draw and not 14.
Swallows reached the final of the Khomas leg of the Preliminaries at their first time of asking and along the way defeated favourites Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) 4-2 on penalties after a one-all draw in the quarterfinals and saw off Young Ones 3-2 , again on penalties after a two-all draw in the semi-finals.
The Katutura-based team that has dominated youth leagues in the Khomas region for some time now, are in their maiden season in the Khomas Second Division and sits third on the table after six games on 11 points.
Eleven Champions, 2017 Regional winners of the Debmarine Namibia Cup, had the beating of Afrika Rassaps 2-1 in the quarterfinals and Kingston 5-4 on penalties after a one-all draw in the semi-finals.
The Elimination Rounds for the First and Second Divisions are scheduled to take place on the weekends of 03 – 04 March 2018 and 10 – 11 March with the while the draw for the second divisions elimination, pitting two regions against each other will take place on 12 March and that eliminator scheduled to take place on 17 March.
At the elimination round, each regional winner will walk away with N$ 20,000, while the losing finalist with get N$10,000 and each losing semi-finals with receive N$ 5000 for their part in the football extravaganza.
