The Tafel Lager Brave Warriors finally had their first training session on Wednesday afternoon, but the circumstances left a lot to be desired as a training pitch had not been booked and one had to be found at the last minute.
An hour before the first training session set for 15h30, team manager Tim Isaacs informed national coach Tom Saintfiet that a training pitch had not been booked after previous negotiations from Windhoek had remained inconclusive.
Saintfiet had to scurry around at the last minute to find a training pitch and the assistant goalkeeper coach Lutz Pfannenstiel came to the rescue when he managed to organise one through a Ghanaian contact of his Global United Football Club.
The training pitch was however far from ideal as it was a bumpy and unevenly grassed school pitch, which made ball control quite difficult, while the players could not train flat out due to the risk of injuries.
Despite the poor preparation and organisation, Saintfiet remained upbeat and sounded relieved to have his first training session under the belt.
“The players were a bit tired because we flew for most of the night and only arrived early in the morning, when we went to sleep for a few hours. They were a little bit tired so we wanted to do a relaxed training session so that their muscles could become supple. Brian Isaacs did a good warming up exercise and after that we concentrated on good passing and ball possession exercises.”
“My players did everything to have a first good training session on our way to Gambia, but we are not complete, because we only have 11 outfield players and two goalkeepers here. So it was not much of a training session, but more about just getting the long flight from Windhoek to Accra out of the legs,” he said.
Saintfiet said they would have one more training session before leaving for Gambia later on Thursday afternoon.
“We wanted to train twice today but because of the travel and arrival we were not able to do that. On Thursday morning we will have another training session because in the afternoon we have to leave again for Gambia where we will only arrive after midnight.”
“We will only arrive at our hotel at about 03h00 in the morning, so we will first need a good rest before our final training session on Friday afternoon. There we will also for the first time have the full squad together with the foreign based players like Henrico Botes, Wilko Risser, Oliver Risser, Collin Benjamin and Tangeni Shipahu,” he said.
The conditions in Accra are hot and humid, although overcast, and completely different to Namibia’s dry air, but the players have adapted well and remain in high spirits ahead of Saturday’s match.