Football

The Namibia Premier League continues this weekend with three matches taking place in Windhoek, while two matches have been postponed.

Log leaders, Black Africa won’t be in action after their match against Eleven Arrows in Walvis Bay was postponed.

BA still have a sizeable nine-point lead over the chasing pack but their inactivity will give teams like African Stars and Tigers a chance to narrow the gap.

Stars will fancy their chances of victory when they host bottom of the log United Stars at the Sam Nujoma Stadium at 17h00 on Saturday.

The Brave Warriors will play two friendly home matches against Hoffenheim U23 and Mozambique over the next two weeks in preparation for their Afcon 2013 qualifier against Liberia on February 29.

Brave Warriors coach Bernard Kaanjuka on Thursday made this announcement, saying that he would use the match against Hoffenheim to give several young players a chance.

He announced a 22-man squad to take on Hoffenheim U23 at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium on Thursday, February 16.

Black Africa striker Jerome Louis on Thursday received an FNB Unit Trust voucher to the value of N$750 from FNB Namibia after winning the Namibia Sport FNB Player of the Month competition.

It was a tight race, with Louis receiving four votes from Namibia Sport’s panel of judges while SKW striker Panduleni Nekundi who received three votes and Mighty Gunners striker Harold Ochurub one vote.

Louis told Namibia Sport he was very happy to win the prize.

Civics beat Ramblers 1-0 to move up to third spot on the log on Wednesday night.

Collin Chimu scored the winning goal a minute before the break when he latched onto a loose ball in the centre of the park and unleashed a 30m shot that flew into the left hand corner of the net.

The goal was somewhat against the run of play as Ramblers had done most of the attacking but they could not break through Civics’ defence, which was well marshalled by Donelly Nel and Penias Nzeve.

There has been a lot of activity before the Namibia Premier League transfer window came to a close on January 31.

In the most high profile transfer, Ramblers’ young national striker Sadney Urikhob joined Civics for a fee of N$25 000.

Ramblers’ Brazilian midfielder Alex Ferreira also joined Civics, while their former national goalkeeper Athiel Mbaha joined Tigers.

German football club 1899 Hoffenheim’s Under 23 team will arrive in Namibia on Wednesday, 8 February for a 10-day visit, as part of an International Football Partnership Agreement with Namibian Premier League champions Black Africa.

Their program will be packed with training sessions, practise matches and official visits to various schools and other organisations. They will also travel to Swakopmund for a short two-day desert training camp.

Ramblers’ young centre back Emilio Martin has gone to the top of the NPL Goalscoring chart with seven goals after scoring two goals in their 4-2 victory against Hotspurs on Saturday.

Martin’s first goal came from the penalty spot, while his second was a superb freekick that he curled around the wall from the edge of the box.

Most of Martins’ goals have come from set pieces as he is Ramblers’ regular penalty and freekick taker.

Namibia’s Under 17 women’s soccer team suffered a 5-0 defeat at South Africa on Saturday to put an end to their chances of making it to the 2012 FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup.

The two sides had played to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Windhoek two weeks ago and Namibia entered the return leg full of confidence of gaining a positive result.

But in then end the South Africans proved too strong for the Namibian ladies as the former scored five unanswered goals to take a 6-1 aggregate win into the second round of the African World Cup qualifiers.

SKW held log leaders Black Africa to a 2-2 draw in an entertaining match at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Friday night.

In the end a draw was probably a fair result, although both teams had numerous chances to win the game.

All the goals came in a pulsating first half of frenetic action. Black Africa went on the attack first with Willy Stephanus and Marco van Wyk coming close early on.

But SKW took the lead against the run of play when a long throw in by Elvis Tjivisera was headed on and Joslin Kamutuka stabbed the loose ball into the far post.

Orlando Pirates and African Stars meet in the Katutura derby at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Saturday afternoon. For once, the outcome will not have much bearing on the title chase as both teams are way off the pace, but as usual a lot of needle and drama can be expected when these two Katutura giants meet.

Stars won their first round encounter 2-0 through goals by Tara Katupose and Rudi Louw and are currently fourth on the log, 11 points behind leaders Black Africa, while Pirates are way down in eighth position, a full 16 points behind Black Africa.