Senior national football team coach Collin Benjamin says the lack of experience in his squad was evident when they drew one-all against host nation South Africa in their opening match of the Cosafa Cup.

The 2023 Senior Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup is underway in Durban, South Africa. Namibia is drawn in Group A alongside host nation South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini.

In their opening Group A match at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban Wednesday night, the two nations played to a hard-fought stalemate which saw Elmo Kambindu giving Namibia the lead just before the halftime break. The Namibian talisman found himself unmarked at the back post and had the simplest of headed chances to put his side in front after a brilliant cross from Bethuel Muzeu just minutes before halftime.

In the second half, it took just three minutes of play for the home team to be back on level terms when Rowan Human scored his first international goal just outside the 18-yard area. But despite both teams pushing for the winner later in the match, neither side could find the back of the net as the game ended 1-1.

In an interview after the match, Benjamin said he was happy with the way his team started the match.

“We started well. In the areas we call the war zone, we had aggression. We could have gone into the lead way earlier in the match, but our final touch failed us,” he said, adding that Muzeu and Kambindu connected well to score the goal, and credit should be given to them for their hard work.

The coach also added that inexperience hit them when their opponents had a throw-in, but his players could not react fast as they had their backs against the opponents.

“We are still going to work hard to get a point from the next match. We are hopeful of collecting enough points so we can go through to the next round of the competition as group winners,” Benjamin said.

Namibia’s next match in the competition will be against Eswatini. The match starts at 18h00 on Saturday at the King Zwelithini Stadium.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency