Namibia: Blue Waters Derail Ramblers’ Title Charge

22 March 2011

Ramblers spurned a chance to close the gap on Black Africa when they lost 1-0 to Blue Waters in a day of drama at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Saturday.

The results were however overshadowed by events off the field as Laurentius Humphries, the head of Humphries Security Company that provides security at Namibian football matches, collapsed at the stadium after an asthma attack. He was rushed to hospital but was later pronounced dead.

In on-field drama, the late match between Orlando Pirates and Blue Boys was disrupted midway through the second half when Blue Boys’ players walked off the field alleging that the referee was drunk.

At that stage Pirates were leading 3-0 after a hattrick by Johannes Seibeb, but the NPL will now have to decide if the result will stand or not.

Blue Waters midfielder Reggie Haraseb scored their winning goal against Ramblers, shortly before halftime, when he followed up a rebound to score from close range.

The result was a blow for Ramblers’ title ambitions as they remain seven points behind Black Africa with a match in hand.

Ramblers’ coach Christie Guruseb rued their missed chances.

“We dominated possession and missed a lot of chances, while Blue Waters caught us on the counterattack. But we don’t want to put extra pressure on the players. There are still a few games left and we will just take it one game at a time, so we don’t want to press the panic button at this stage,” he said.

In the match between Orlando Pirates and Blue Boys, Pirates took an early lead when Johannes Seibeb converted a penalty after Klaas Blom was fouled in the box.

Seibeb scored two more goals in the second half to complete his hattrick, but the match was disrupted when Blue Boys’ players walked off the field alleging that the referee was drunk.

According to Pirates’ coach Woody Jacobs the incident happened after Blue Boys’ medic went on the field to treat a player. He went back to their bench and alleged that the referee was drunk. After that their players walked off the field, and the match was called off. The referee was taken for an alcohol test but it was negative.

Jacobs said deplored their action, saying it was reminiscent of ‘bush football’ and did not belong in the modern game.

“They brought the game into disrepute. I am very disappointed. How can you just disrupt a game like that, when you are losing. The days of bush football are long gone,” he said.

According to Jacobs, the incident took place after 75 minutes, which means that the result will stand if the NPL finds that nothing untoward happened. If Pirates are awarded the points, they will join second placed Ramblers on 27 points.

AllAfrica – All the Time