Warriors confident of beating South Africa
Football
Maqonda Ndlovu - Brave Warriors players Ananias Gebhardt and Riaan Hanamub are confident Namibia will beat South Africa tonight to defend their Plate trophy won in Windhoek last year.
Speaking to Nampa following their 1-0 victory over Swaziland in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) tournament on Tuesday evening, the two players said their loss to Lesotho on Saturday was now water under the bridge.
“We will not be scared of South Africa. They have the best league in Africa, but we would like to prove that we are as talented as they are. Fans can be assured of a great game,” Gebhardt said.
He added that the biggest motivating factor for Namibians was to perform well against Bafana Bafana, so as to catch the eye of the scouts and earn big money moves to the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL).
His views were shared by Hanamub, who made his first start in a Brave Warriors shirt in a match against Malawi last year following three substitute appearances.
Hanamub said South Africa was not as scary a prospect as it used to be, hence they will go into the game with the belief that they can beat them.
He listed other motivating factors as beating their more fancied opponents for bragging rights and to market themselves.
“For us such a game means we can impress the scouts of various PSL teams or even other African teams which will enable us to earn contracts, meaning we can improve our lives,” he said.
Hanamub reserved special praise to his team’s senior players, saying the way they accepted him has made it easy for him to focus on his game, rather than worry about other things.
“Junior (Gebhardt) plays the same position as me, but he keeps encouraging me to be myself. During the game on Tuesday night he kept motivating me and he really made me belief in myself,” he added.
Hanamub said the defeat by Lesotho has brought the team together and raised the spirit in the camp.
• Kick-off time is at 16:00 (Namibian time) and the match is broadcast live on SuperSport 4. - Nampa
Speaking to Nampa following their 1-0 victory over Swaziland in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) tournament on Tuesday evening, the two players said their loss to Lesotho on Saturday was now water under the bridge.
“We will not be scared of South Africa. They have the best league in Africa, but we would like to prove that we are as talented as they are. Fans can be assured of a great game,” Gebhardt said.
He added that the biggest motivating factor for Namibians was to perform well against Bafana Bafana, so as to catch the eye of the scouts and earn big money moves to the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL).
His views were shared by Hanamub, who made his first start in a Brave Warriors shirt in a match against Malawi last year following three substitute appearances.
Hanamub said South Africa was not as scary a prospect as it used to be, hence they will go into the game with the belief that they can beat them.
He listed other motivating factors as beating their more fancied opponents for bragging rights and to market themselves.
“For us such a game means we can impress the scouts of various PSL teams or even other African teams which will enable us to earn contracts, meaning we can improve our lives,” he said.
Hanamub reserved special praise to his team’s senior players, saying the way they accepted him has made it easy for him to focus on his game, rather than worry about other things.
“Junior (Gebhardt) plays the same position as me, but he keeps encouraging me to be myself. During the game on Tuesday night he kept motivating me and he really made me belief in myself,” he added.
Hanamub said the defeat by Lesotho has brought the team together and raised the spirit in the camp.
• Kick-off time is at 16:00 (Namibian time) and the match is broadcast live on SuperSport 4. - Nampa
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