The Brave Gladiators had a bad day at the office against Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors on Monday when they lost 2-0 to all but end their hopes of reaching the 2023 Cosafa Women’s Championship second round, stand-in head coach Marvin Mbakera said.
However, that should not detract from the progress they have made in recent times, he said.
The result leaves Namibia second-last with one point from two matches in Group C, with Zimbabwe leading the pool on six points.
Botswana, who drew with Namibia on Friday, beat Lesotho 3-0 yesterday to place second on four points.
Lesotho have no points, having lost their opener 1-0 to Zimbabwe.
“These girls are magnificent. I think they gave it their all. You could see that even when we went two goals down, these girls were still fighting. These are gladiators. That’s the character that the girls have, fighting until the end,” Mbakera said in his post match briefing.
He refused to blame the players for the lethargic display. Instead, he believes the girls will emerge better from the defeat.
“Our game model was to try it keep it compact, and then counter. We got punished for not taking our chances,” Mbakera said.
“Both goals were individual mistakes. We have to make sure that the girls grow from such mistakes, and make sure that we make them better players. Because, at this level you can’t get away with it,” he said.
“We’ll go all out in the last game and hopefully the mathematics will play in our favour.”
Veteran Mighty Warriors’ winger Rudo Neshamba netted the opener after latching on to a through ball from Christabel Katano.
Namibia should have equalised in the opening minutes of the second half through Thomalina Adams, who blazed her effort over the bar.
Instead, Zimbabwe extended their lead just before the hour mark when Mellissa Matheus, in goals for Namibia, lost flight of the ball from Nobukhosi Ncube’s looping long-range free-kick.
Zimbabwe coach Shadreck Mlauzi was pleased that his side came out on top in the “tough” battle to maintain their perfect start to the competition in which they are only side yet to concede.
“Every win is very important to us. We are a team here on a rebuilding thrust. A lot has happened, we are all aware of that. The players are relishing being back in international football.
We trying to lay important foundation for future qualifiers. This is the competitiveness that we want as we move towards different competitions,” Mlauzi said.
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