editor's blog

The MTC Premiership intensified in February as the battle for league honours as well as the battle for survival amongst the bottom clubs led to some remarkable results. The leading teams all stumbled and failed to make use of their opportunities to move clear, and with five matches remaining, African Stars still held a slender two-point lead over Orlando Pirates. Third placed Tigers, who were five points behind Stars and Black Africa (seven points behind) are also still in with a chance of winning the N$600 000 first prize.

With the MTC Namibia Premier League entering the home straight, the pressure on coaches to deliver results has started to increase and the usual coaches merry go round has once again started.

As in previous seasons, several coaches have come and gone over the past few months, only to resurface at new clubs.

The first round of the MTC Premiership ended in thrilling fashion in December with defending champions African Stars taking the lead in the title race. Stars edged ahead of Katutura rivals Black Africa and Orlando Pirates after the latter two played out to a goalless draw in a passionate derby on December 11. The result left Stars just ahead of Pirates on goal difference, while Black Africa was lying third, two points off the pace.

Paulus “Hitman” Moses will face his toughest test to date when he defends his WBA lightweight world title against Marco Antonio Barrera of Mexico in Los Angeles at the beginning of January.

The 35-year-old Mexican is a seven-time world champion in three different weight classes and is ranked amongst the American television network, ESPN’s 50 Greatest Boxers of All Time. He is vastly experienced with a professional record of 72 fights, 65 wins and 7 defeats, and will start as the favourite in front of his home fans.

Soccer fever is starting to grow in southern Africa as a feast of football lies in store next year, kicking off with the African Cup of Nations finals in Angola in January. Unfortunately Namibia did not qualify for the finals after dropping out during the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign, but Namibians got a taste of things to come when the Standard Bank AFCON Trophy Tour hit northern Namibia last month.

South Africa’s Springboks won the inaugural Trustco Sevens Rugby Tournament at the end of September after a comfortable victory against Zimbabwe in the final, but the accolades went to Namibia – both on and off the field.

By announcing an investment of N$18 million over six years for the tournament, Trustco Namibia managed to attract some of the world’s top Sevens teams like South Africa, Fiji, Samoa and Argentina and gave a major boost to the sport code in the country and Africa in general.

After a hiatus of about three months the new MTC Namibia Premier League season is once again upon us and promises to be bigger and better than ever before. NPL chairman JJ Doeseb led a delegation to South Africa where they held negotiations with the Premier Soccer League and SuperSport that have opened up some exciting new opportunities for the NPL. SuperSport already indicated that they are willing to broadcast a highlights package of NPL matches on DSTV, but insisted that the package must be of a high technical quality.

SKW’s prolific midfielder Marco van Wyk capped a great season by winning the Namibia Sport MTC Player of the Season award.

Van Wyk played a major role in SKW’s challenge for the title and although they faltered over the last few matches to finish fourth, Van Wyk was in a class of his own. Despite being a midfielder, he emerged as the second highest goalscorer in the league behind Jerome Louis of Black Africa, while it was often his creative spark that set up SKW’s victories.

Fergie’ signing of Michael Owen is amazing, especially in the light of Rafa Benitez turning down the offer of bringing Owen back to Liverpool. What does Fergie see that Rafa doesn’t and who will be vindicated in the end?
The answer lies with Owen, a proven goalscorer, but struggling to fulfil the potential he showed as Liverpool and England’s star striker about a decade ago.

Rafa declined to take him, and thereby reinforced the feeling that Owen is over the hill. Ferguson, though, has put his faith in him, but whether this can reignite his magic of old remains to be seen.

With less than a year to go to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, soccer fans the world over got a taste of things to come when South Africa hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup in June.

Although there were some concerns about the poor attendances at matches that did not feature South Africa, the tournament was an unqualified success with South Africa showing that it was capable of hosting the world’s biggest sporting spectacle.