Brave Warriors has stagnated

Jesse Jackson Kauraisa



The Namibia football national team has had the same faces ever since the Ricardo Mannetti era and we expect the team to go higher?

I think many of the lads in the team have done what they could and have gone as far as they could.

Yes, Namibia is not going to the Africa Cup of Nations and yet again, they have failed to make it to the World Cup.

Well, I know that it is important to build a team on the crop of players you have, but some have to go because they have past their peak.

Most of these players have been in the set-up for close to a decade now and I just think they have run the course.

I am not saying that they did not make their nation proud, but I just feel that they could only improve and take the team until a certain level.

Many teams around the world have started their rebuilding process as many young faces are coming through the ranks to replace those who have been part of the set-up for so long.

Teams like Italy, Spain, Brazil and many other nations are now classical examples of rebuilds.

The Spanish team that went to the Euros was young but did so well, having reached the semis of a big competition.

The current South African national team has so many new faces compared to our team as well.

The problem is not that the players we have are poor, it is that they can only play or take the team until a certain level.

There is a need to inject pace and new blood into the team while retaining only two or three players from those who have been part of the team for over seven years.

I also believe it is time that the philosophy of our football changes because it has been the same for so many years.

Most of our teams have been playing the same type of football for the past 10 years and the set-up of our teams has been similar, even when we have seen a change in coaches.

The system has worked on several occasions because we qualified to Afcon and we won the Cosafa.

That is how far the current philosophy could take us, but we will struggle to go a gear further if we remain stagnant with the same kind of players, tactics and philosophy.

I find nothing wrong with seeking new ideas from other football associations who have managed to successfully build teams in different eras.

South Africa as a country has been the gateway for many of our players but even that country itself has not qualified to the World Cup since 2010, nor has it won the Africa Cup of Nations in over two decades.

It is for this reason that we have to create links to European countries, so that our players can learn advanced tactics and systems from a young age.

We have to admit that our players playing in SA are earning good money and playing well but that will not take our national team anywhere.

There is also necessary to have our coaches trained overseas because they have really not shown enough tactical maturity and knowledge, even after having received CAF licences.

If you look at countries like Senegal, their coach is Senegalese but played most of his career in France and was educated by the French.

This is one of the reasons why teams in West Africa are doing so well - because their coaches and players have been equipped with better coaching from an early age.

Many may say it is unpatriotic, but I always believe that the only way you can defeat your enemies is when they train you.

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