Carlos Kambaekwa
6 June 2011
Windhoek — Namibia’s slim hopes of making a last-ditch qualification for the 28th edition of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) 2012 Nations Cup finals to be co hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea were finally dashed after another lacklustre showing.
The toothless unimaginative Brave Warriors were made to run around like headless chickens in their own backyard when they were embarrassed 4-1 by the silky Stallions of Burkina Faso at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium on Saturday.
It was the Warriors’ third successive defeat in the three-nations Group F, following the early withdrawal of Mauritania, and has left the winless Namibians rooted to the basement of the group standings behind runaway log leaders Burkina Faso with Gambia in second place on three points.
Namibia suffered back-to-back defeats in their opening two matches away to Gambia and Burkina Faso respectively and the rusty Warriors were resting their slender hopes on home-ground advantage to salvage some lost pride but the muscular visitors were in an uncompromising mood.
Following Namibia’s heavy defeat against Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou (4-0), Warriors co-coaches Brian Isaacs and Ronnie Kanalelo refused to apportion blame on themselves and fingered out gigantic shot stopper Atiel Mbaha as the main culprit for the Warriors’ lukewarm performance.
The long-serving net minder was subsequently shown the door to make way for the young and energetic Virgil Vries, but the Eleven Arrows goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent the Burkinabes from putting him to the sword as they rattled the Namibians’ net on no less than four occasions.
After an evenly balanced opening 45-minutes, the visitors found themselves a goal to the good courtesy of Abdul Traore’s 13th minute strike. Sensing victory and buoyed by their one goal advantage – the Stallions went further via a highly disputed penalty awarded by South Africa referee Jerome Damon.
Aristide Bance made no mistake from the twice taken penalty as he sent Vries the wrong way to make it 2-0, 12-minutes into the second half.
The shaky Warriors rearguard conceded another silly penalty, which was duly converted by Alam Traore in the 75th minute to all but put the match beyond the clueless Namibians.
Tangeni Shipahu pulled a face-saving goal back for the hosts with six minutes left on the clock but the visitors were not to be outdone either and put the final nail into the Warriors’ coffin when Jonathan Pitropia netted goal number four for the Stallions (4-1) with almost the last kick of the match.
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Warriors Humiliated