Africa-Press – Namibia. Desert Foxes from Walvis Bay were promoted to the FNB Women Super League after winning their promotion play-off tournament over the weekend.
The Walvis Bay-based Desert Foxes won the central and southern zone playoff tournament at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium after winning all three their matches to finish on top of the log.
On Saturday, they beat Aroab Football Academy 3-1 and Golden Mission 4-0, and yesterday beat Flying Eagles from Mariental 2-0.
That put them on top of the log on nine points to clinch a place in the Women Super League for the first time, while Aroab FA finished second on six points, after beating Flying Eagles 4-1 and Golden Mission 2-0.
Flying Eagles finished third on three points after beating Golden Mission 3-2 on Saturday.
In their final match yesterday, Desert Foxes took quite a while to break down Flying Eagles’ defence, for whom their goalkeeper Yvonne Nangenda brought off some courageous saves.
The Foxes’ pressure, however, finally told as Lucia Hilundupo opened the scoring with a strong run and finish with 10 minutes to go.
The Foxes continued to attack and Matilde Gereses made it 2-0 just before the full-time whistle to send her teammates and coaching staff on the bench wild with delight.
Desert Foxes chairman Paulus Shipanga, who has coached several men’s premier league clubs including Blue Waters, Eleven Arrows and Black Africa, says he is still struggling to absorb it all.
“It’s beyond exciting, I still can’t believe it. It’s been a difficult journey, but we made it through. Congrats to my coach, Abraham Brown, and my manager, Magnus Tjiueza, who did an incredible job behind the scenes. This is an incredible thing for Erongo, we are the first team that will be there from Walvis Bay and I’m just so excited,” he says.
“I hope the girls will realise what they did and how important it is for them, because I think they still don’t know what they have achieved.
“This started as a joke, but we managed to come out on top, and now we are in the top league of women’s football. It’s going to be hard work from here but thank you to God, and to everyone who put their time and effort in and helped us achieve this,” he says.
Shipanga is under no illusion about the task ahead of them in the Women Super League.
“It will be very difficult, and we will have to beef up the team a little bit, so we’ll start looking for players. We know we’ll be the underdogs, but we will be competitive, because we don’t just want to come in and then go out again. I would appreciate it if we can remain in the premier league for this coming season as well as the next season,” he says.
He says he does not foresee coaching football again any time soon.
“Maybe some time, but definitely not this coming season. I’m taking time off now from men’s football coaching, just to concentrate on my mental health as well as this project with the Desert Foxes, so not any time soon.”
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