Mannetti welcomes Cosafa draw

Senior national football team coach Ricardo Mannetti has welcomed the 2016 Council of ­Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) draw.
The draw for the 2016 Cosafa Cup, which will be hosted in Windhoek from 11 to 25 June, was held in Johannesburg on Thursday night.
Defending Cosafa 2015 champions, Namibia, will only be active in the competition from the quarter-final stage against neighbours Botswana, who will also not be playing in the group stages after being selected among the seeded teams.
“I am happy to finally know who we are playing at the Cosafa Cup.
“We will now start preparing well for our opponents, since our aim is to successfully defend the trophy,” said Mannetti.
Since August 1996 when Namibia beat Botswana 6-0 in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers at Independence Stadium, the two nations have met nine times of which Namibia has not won one game.
They drew four times and ­Botswana won the remaining five matches.
Mannetti added that Botswana should not be taken lightly when the two teams meet at Cosafa, because Botswana is ranked higher than Namibia and have a stronger squad that can cause an upset with any team.
“We are going into the competition with only one aim and that is retaining the trophy and as a nation, we should not underestimate Botswana because they have been getting good results lately in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games.
“What we are going to do now is start preparing very well for the tournament, first with the locally based players who will be in camp by 8 May, before we will be joined by our foreign based players when the South African league comes to an end.”
The coach said the team would be ready for the tournament because they will play Niger in the Afcon qualifiers in May and then two more warm-up friendlies planned to keep the team ready for the Cosafa Cup.
The Cosafa Cup group matches will be played between 11 and 16 June at the Sam Nujoma and Independence Stadiums. Quarterfinal action will be on 18 and 19 June, with the plate semi-final to be contested on 21 June and the semi-finals slated for 22 June. The plate final will be on 24 June and the bronze and gold finals will both be played on 25 June. 
- Nampa