Brave Warriors back to drawing board after Bafana Bafana stalemate in COSAFA opener

By Adolf Kaure.

Namibia were held to a 1-1 draw against host-nation South Africa in the opening match of the Hollywood Bets COSAFA encounter which took place on Wednesday evening at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban, South Africa.

The Tafel Lager Brave Warriors took the lead during the Group A via an Elmo Kambindu cushioned header after 43 minutes. Three minutes after half time, Bafana Bafana equalised, courtesy of Rowan Human. This enabled the neighbouring countries to share the spoils after the full-time whistle.

According to Namibia head coach, Colin Benjamin, the Tafel Lager Brave Warriors need to learn from mistakes if they want to progress to the next phase of the competition.

“Compliments to my team. I think they did well. We conceded the goal a little bit too early in the second half. So we need a little bit a little matured. We live to fight to another day.”

“I think it is a tough group and there are still six points to play for and go back to the drawing board to rectify the mistakes that we made and live to fight another day.” he said during his post-match interview.

Benjamin further said that the tournament is a great platform for home-based players to showcase their abilities.

“It is a platform for regional football to develop and for players to market themselves and play for teams abroad,” Benjamin said.

In the other Group A encounter, Botswana defeated Eswatini 1-0.

Namibia will try to take all three points as they take on Eswatini on Saturday at the same stadium. The last time Namibia won the COSAFA Cup was in 2015 after defeating Mozambique 2-0 in the final.