editor's blog

About 40 lucky Namibians got an early taste of World Cup fever when they travelled to Rustenburg, South Africa to attend the FIFA Confederations Cup match between Spain and New Zealand on June 14.
They were the winners in a competition organised by FNB Namibia to promote their FIFA 2010 World Cup campaign, which attracted a huge response according to the head of FNB’s Cards Division, Calvin Wolman.

After a thrilling season, the MTC Namibia Premier League reaches its climax in June with up to four teams still in the running for title honours. African Stars however struck a decisive blow when they beat SKW 1-0 on May 20, to replace the German club at the top of the log. With a game in hand, Stars are now well placed to win their first league title since the start of the Namibia Premier League in 1990.

With six rounds to go in the MTC Namibia Premier League, Cymot SKW have suddenly emerged as real title contenders by going to the top of the log.

With African Stars setting the early pace, not many people had considered the German club as title contenders, but they remained unbeaten over the past two months, beating teams like Orlando Pirates and Eleven Arrows along the way. This has catapulted them to the top, and SKW fans will now be hoping that they can win the league title for the first time since gaining promotion four seasons ago.

I was fortunate enough to join Namibia’s national soccer team the Brave Warriors on a trip to Angola for a friendly match against their national side, the Palancas Negras. The match formed part of Angola’s seventh anniversary Peace Celebrations and was due to take place in the northern Angolan town of Dundo, about 20km from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the halfway stage of the MTC Namibia Premier League, African Stars had threatened to break away from the chasing pack after an unbeaten streak of 12 matches, but old foes Black Africa stunned them with a 3-0 victory to throw the title race wide open.

Stars still hold a commanding lead at the top, but BA’s victory would have given new hope to teams like Cymot SKW, Eleven Arrows and Civics who all started the second round with convincing victories.

African Stars emerged from the chasing pack as the main title contenders at the end of the first round of the MTC Namibia Premier League in February. Within the space of a month they rose from third to first on the log, building up a seven-point lead at the halfway stage, and although it’s still early days, they are now well positioned to win their first league title since the start of the NPL in 1990.

Paulus “The Hitman” Moses lived up to his great potential when he beat Japan’s Yusuke Kobori to claim the WBA lightweight world title last month.
Fighting in front of 5 000 fanatical Japanese fans, Moses gave a superb display to silence the crowd and convincingly win the fight on points over 12 rounds.

As we reach the start of another new year, it is time to take a look back at our sporting achievements of 2008. There were not too many highlights, especially at the Beijing Olympics where Namibia failed to make an impact, but Namibian sportsmen and women still gave top class performances against some of the world’s best athletes. Our boxers, cricketers, marathon runners, archers and cyclists, to name but a few, gave some excellent performances, sometimes against great odds.

The MTC Namibia Premier League finally kicked off in November, after a delay of more than two months.
The delay was largely due to dragging negotiations between the Namibia Football Association and the Namibia Football Consortium, as the NFA pressed for an increase in funds, saying that their existing contract of N$8 million a year was not enough to cover the growing expenses needed to run the game.

The Brave Warriors finally lived up to their true potential with a great 4-2 victory against Zimbabwe on October 11. Although they were already out of the World Cup qualifiers they showed what they are capable of with a slick and professional display that stunned the Zimbabweans and left the home fans savouring a special performance.