Africa-Press – Namibia. A lack of resources contributed to Namibia’s elimination from the Cosafa u17 Girls Championships according to Jacky Gertze, the head of women’s football of the Namibia Football Association.
Namibia gave a stunning display to beat the Comoros Islands 10-0 in their final group match on Tuesday, but then missed the semifinals by the narrowest of margins as Mozambique pipped them by a single goal to the knock-out stages.
Namibia had earlier lost 3-0 to group winners Malawi, to finish second in Group A on three points and a +7 goal aggregate, but Mozambique, who finished second in Group B, also on three points and a +7 goal aggregate, pipped them to the post as the best runner-up after having scored 11 goals compared to Namibia’s 10.
Gertze yesterday said a lack of resources contributed to inadequate preparation for the tournament.
“The big difference is in terms of keeping your elite group together, putting them earlier into camp, letting them train, resource them in terms of nutrition, in terms of best training grounds and best conditions in terms of medical care and having them ready for competitions like this – that would have made a big difference. My biggest concern is resources around youth football teams, resources around bringing the coaches in, helping the coaches to get the teams earlier into camp, that was, for me, the difference in the Malawi match and as a football association, what we are trying to do is to look at the limitations of the resources,” she said.
“Our u17 team missed out on the semi-finals by a single goal, so it shows you that we have the talent, but it doesn’t also help that we only look at the football association, but there’s no resources coming in supporting our systems because it costs money to keep them in camp. It costs money to give them the best nutrition, it costs money to bring coaches in to work with the girls,” she added.
“But generally we are very proud of the girls, and for them to miss out on the semis doesnt necessarily make me sad because we know the realities on the ground. Our girls fought so hard, they scored 10 goals, and they created records along the way,” she said, referring to captain and striker Nancy Lebang who scored an astonishing seven goals to draw level with Uganda’s Juliet Nalukenge (vs Comoros, 2019) and Zambia’s Mercy Chipasula (vs Lesotho 2024) as the only players to have netted seven goals in a match at the tournament.
“We already knew that players like Nancy of V Power Angels, Tamara Hangula of Okahandja FC, Joy Goses of Julinho Athletic and Cherifa Garoes of Unam would stand out because they get regular game time at their clubs in the Super League, which is a tough league to play in for a young girl. But we already know the rest of the group are girls that played in the u15 CAF Schools tournament last year so they are still very young, and for them to play at a higher level now, they would need a longer camp to prepare adequately, so that they get the right endurance, the right training, the right nutrition and the right mindset before they get into a competition like this,” she said.
Gertze said they have regular regional leagues throughout the country to identify talent but called on corporates to come forward with financial support.
“All these leagues cost money and for us to bring these young girls together, you’ll have to go through the school system of getting them released, missing classes and so on. So it means its very difficult to bring them together in this age group, so we need to find resources to keep them fit and training with regional or zonal coaches, or coaches at schools and the academies,” she said.
“But what do we do with our holiday programmes or mid-term breaks, because then we have the Namibian Newspaper Cup for u20 boys, so we also need to bring these girls together then, but we need to get resources to do this,” she said.
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