The Brave Warriors will have little time at home after returning to Windhoek from Gambia on Tuesday morning, since they will once again leave on Saturday to take on India in Delhi in a friendly match next Wednesday, September 15.
The Namibia Football Association agreed to the match after receiving a request from the Indian Football Association who are using the match as part of their preparations for the 2011 Asian Cup of Nations finals which take place in Qatar in January 2011.
Since the match does not take place on an international FIFA friendly date, Namibia’s foreign based professionals will not be released by their clubs and Brave Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet will only be allowed to use his local based players.
As such, he has added a few local based players to the squad that did duty in Gambia.
African Stars goalkeeper Max Mbaeva has been included along with Athiel Mbaha and Virgil Vries who went to Gambia.
The other newcomers to the squad are defenders Michael Pienaar and Nelson Geingob, midfielders Rudi Louw and Eslin Kamuhanga and strikers Jerome Louis and Roger Katjiteo.
India is currently ranked 136th in the world on the FIFA rankings, 21 positions below Namibia’s ranking of 115.
Saintfiet said he expected a tough battle since India will be well prepared for the match.
“India are investing a lot in their football and it is currently the second most popular sport in India, after cricket. They have been in a training camp in Portugal for the past two months in preparation for the Asian Cup finals and will be well prepared to face Namibia. They will have their strongest squad of players available, while they will have a crowd of anything between 50 000 and 100 000 people cheering them on,” he said.
Saintfiet said the match would serve as good preparation for Namibia for the Cosafa Cup competition in November in Angola, while it would also provide Namibia’s players a good opportunity to showcase their talents to scouts from the Indian Premier League.
“The I League is very lucrative and a lot of African players are already playing there. This match will provide our players with a good opportunity to possibly land themselves a contract there,” he said.
Saintfiet, however, said he did not expect to do too well.
“Our league has been inactive for four months now and our players are not fit. If people expect miracles, then we should rather stay at home. I agreed to take on this match because every game is important to develop the national team,” he said.
The match will take place on Wednesday at about 13h00 Namibian time.
The Namibian squad is as follows:
Goalkeepers:
Athiel Mbaha, Virgil Vries, Max Mbaeva.
Defenders:
Hartman Toromba, Richard Gariseb, Michael Pienaar, Steven Goagub, Jamu Ngatjizeko, Nelson Geingob, Gottlieb Nakuta.
Midfielders:
Ninja Karongee, Quinton Jacobs, Rudi Louw, Edward Asino, Heini Isaacs, Alfred Ndyenge, Eslin Kamuhanga.
Strikers:
Jerome Louis, Roger Katjiteo.