Baby Warriors progress to Cosafa U/17 Semifinals
Prins Tjiueza and Gonzales Tsuseb scored to lead the Baby Warriors to a 2-0 win over Botswana at the 2018 Cosafa U/17 Championships on Tuesday morning at the Stade Anjalay in Belle Vue Muarel, Mauritius and a place in Friday’s semifinals.
Coach Paul Malembu said before the match that it was not yet over after the narrow defeat to Mauritius on Saturday and the boys showed up in great style on Tuesday morning.
On 39 minutes, the 2018 Cosafa U/17 Championship top goal scorer Prins Tjiueza (five goals now) proved his quality as he rounded off a counter attack by the speedy Namibians to give his side a 1-0 halftime lead and one foot in the semifinals.
Botswana had to come out and Namibia had to continue their insurgency and it worked wel for the latter as on 59 minutes, Gonzales Tsuseb scored his side’s second goal that was enough to lead Namibia over the hills and onto Friday semifinals against the winners of Group C, Angola.
“This victory was down to team effort as illustrated by our first goal. After we lost to Mauritius, we had to concentrate more on the mentality of the boys and we had to encourage them for them to still believe. There was a lot at stake and they came right. We are through and we now have to relax and then regroup to plan for Angola in the semifinals and then see whom far we can go. The sky is the limit, the boys have really surprised us, and they can do more from now on”, said Malembu.
Namibia will meet Group C Angola at 13h30 at the St Francois Xavier in Mauritius.
The COSAFA Under-17 Championships serve as a qualifier for the 2019 African Under-17 Championships to be played in Tanzania, which in turn is a qualifier for the FIFA World Cup in Peru later in the year. (NFA)
