The build up to Wednesday night’s historic football international between Bafana Bafana and the Tafel Lager Brave Warriors in Durban was muted on Tuesday as rainy conditions and a lack of interest put a dampener on events.
A scheduled press conference at the Brave Warriors’ Hilton Hotel had to be shifted by close to an hour to accommodate a meeting of South African Football Association delegates including LOC organiser Danny Jordaan and SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani.
There did not seem to be much interest in the Brave Warriors’ press conference and when it was rescheduled to take place in the restaurant an hour later, hardly any local journalists were present.
The word on the street was that South Africa was wasting its time playing ‘minnows’ like Namibia and the general feeling was that Namibia would be in for a good hiding.
Brave Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet was however quietly confident of causing an upset, saying that he hoped to spring a surprise.
“I hope they underestimate us and I get that impression everywhere I go. We are a small nation of only two million while they have about 48 million people with a top professional league. I hope they underestimate us, but lets talk after the game,” he said.
Saintfiet said it would be an exciting and historic match.
“It’s an exciting match. It doesn’t happen so often that Namibia can play against a team that is participating in the World Cup and it’s also the first time in history that Namibia will play against South Africa in South Africa so I’m looking forward to it and I hope there will be a lot of spectators.”
The team’s preparations suffered a late setback after striker Henrico Botes had to withdraw due to an upper thigh injury which he picked up last week while playing for his club Platinum Stars in the South African Premier Soccer League. Since the Brave Warriors still had to drop one of their 19 players to make the final squad of 18 players in any case, Saintfiet did not call up another striker, with the result that Wilko Risser will now definitely start in the striker’s role.
Meanwhile, FIFA had to intervene to secure the release of Namibia’s Turkish-based midfielder Razundara Tjikuzu. His club Diyarbakirspor were initially reluctant to release him saying that he was needed for a club match, which prompted Brave Warriors team manager Tim Isaacs to write to FIFA. FIFA then wrote to the Turkish Football Federation, requesting them to secure Tjikuzu’s release, and he eventually arrived in Durban on Monday evening.
The Brave Warriors had two training sessions on Monday, without Tjikuzu, and according to Saintfiet it went well.
“The weather was very hot on Monday and we had two training sessions in about 30 degrees. We had a relaxed training session in the morning, maybe a bit too relaxed, but in the afternoon we did some tactical exercises and I was quite satisfied with the level of the players,” he said.
“I think the group is strong enough maybe to surprise Africa,” he added.
The president of the Namibia Football Association, John Muinjo meanwhile said that it was a very important match for Namibia.
“For us it’s very important because we are preparing the team for the CHAN competition and the African Cup of Nations, therefore the coach has to look at making the right combinations. For us it’s equally important to give a good performance, while South Africa will be trying to do the same as they prepare for the World Cup. So the pressure will not be on us and we are going to give it our all,” he said.
Muinjo said he managed to secure the match in terms of a cooperation agreement between SAFA and the NFA.
“We have a cooperation agreement with SAFA and based on that I had to push them and twist their arms so that they would consider us. I also had to guarantee that we would offer them a formidable side that can give them good competition and we are not going to be here just to make up the numbers, but to play the game and to spoil the party, so to say,” he said.
Muinjo, too, was quietly confident that Namibia could deliver a surprise.
“Anything is possible in football. It’s not the first time that we have played South Africa – we have played four times and we have won twice, so anything is possible. We have never gone into a game thinking that we are going to lose, so it’s a matter of going onto the field and playing for a good result.”