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.
Eleven Arrows went on an unbeaten streak of four matches to surge up the log, in stark contrast to their coastal neighbours, Blue Waters, who lost all four their matches.
Civics and Ramblers scored some emphatic victories after both had poor starts to the season, but it was bottom of the log Hotspurs who produced the biggest shocks as they beat SKW and Blue Waters and held Black Africa to a draw. Despite their heroics, Hotspurs remained bottom of the log, but they will not go down without a fight and some more shocks could be in store.
We also focus on super strikers Jerome Louis of Black Africa and Tangeni Shipahu of Tigers who have taken the lead in the goal scorer of the season competition. Both strikers have been in great form for their clubs, but neither one has broken into the national squad. In this issue, Brave Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet talks about their strengths and weaknesses and the reasons for their omission.
The Brave Warriors meanwhile, begin their 2010 campaign with an international friendly match against Bafana Bafana at the 70 000-capacity Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on March 3. The match will form part of the 100-day countdown to the World Cup festivities and FIFA president Sepp Blatter and South African supreme Danny Jordaan will also be in attendance.
Although the Brave Warriors will not be at international football’s showpiece event later this year, they will now have a great opportunity to make the world sit up and take notice. They have, after all, beaten Bafana before, and although it was a long time ago, don’t rule out another shock.
Under Saintfiet the Brave Warriors have steadily improved over the past 20 months, building up an impressive record of four wins, five draws and only two defeats, while they climbed 22 places on the FIFA rankings.
In the February issue of Namibia Sport magazine, we bring you an extensive interview with Saintfiet in which he talks about the Bafana match, the CHAN Cup match against Seychelles, and the newfound optimism in the squad, amongst others.
Moving on to boxing, and a feast of action lies in store this month. Paulus ‘The Hitman’ Moses will finally defend his WBA lightweight title against Jose Alfaro in the United States after two previous opponents withdrew at the last minute.
The 26-year-old Nicaraguan is a former world champion, with a professional record of 23 wins of which 20 came via knockout, and five defeats. He will be a tough opponent, but The Hitman is a model professional at the peak of his powers and if he beats Alfaro, a super fight and international recognition could be in the offing.
At home, the Independence Celebrations Boxing Bonanza promises to deliver some fireworks with the eagerly awaited rematch between Tyson Uushona and Tommy Hango for the WBA Pan African welterweight title topping the bill. Harry Simon, meanwhile is also hard at work, planning a comeback, while Abmerk Shidjuu narrowly lost to Chris Edwards of England in a Commonwealth Flyweight title fight.
We also report on the Nedbank Cycle Challenge, the National Swimming Championships, the national cricket team’s success in Zimbabwe and the ongoing success of the NFA Galz & Goals programme in collaboration with Unicef.
We continue with our World Cup countdown and report on the Commonwealth Games countdown which hit Namibia last month in the form of the Queen’s Baton Relay.
Helge Schutz