Biggest sports event in Africa is here!

The 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is here and I am really excited for this one. I can easily say, this is the continent’s showpiece sports tournament.

I mean, what is not to love? Here we see 24 well-matched teams competing in six groups of four teams in each, each with the ambition to lift the ultimate trophy and to be declared the best football nation in Africa.

Placed in a hard group to predict with Tunisia, Mali and our neighbours South Africa, one can definitely say the Brave Warriors are the underdogs once again.

Yet I believe this could be the year in which Namibia win their first match at the AFCON 2023.

Namibia has made three appearances in the African Cup of Nations, going out in the first round in all three editions. In 1998 in Burkina Faso, Namibia lost to Ivory Coast 4-3 and drew against Angola 3-3, before losing to South Africa 4-1.

The latter match belonged solely to Benni McCarthy, who scored all four goals for the eventual beaten finalists, including a stunning hat-trick in the 8th, 11th and 19 minutes.

At Ghana 2008, with a squad including current coach Collin Benjamin, Namibia lost to Morocco 5-1 and to Ghana 1-0, but drew 1-1 with Guinea in their last match.

The experience of their appearance at Egypt 2019 should be of value to the current squad which contains a number of survivors. Against highly-rated Morocco, Ronald Ketjijere’s Namibia were unlucky to concede a 0-1 own-goal defeat, before South Africa won 1-0 five days later with a late Bongani Zungu strike. The already eliminated Namibians then took a 1-4 beating against the Ivorians, despite Joslin Kamatuka’s late consolation goal.

Ivory Coast 2019 will be the fourth time the Brave Warriors compete in the tournament. As it stands, we’ve played 9 games, lost 7 and drawn 2. In this time we’ve scored 10 goals and conceded 24.

With how the team is set up this year and Peter Shalulile leading the team, we definitely have a chance to make a mark at the AFCON 2024.

Especially against South Africa! I doubt that is a match we will lose, seeing how they’ve been struggling to finish off goal-scoring opportunities lately. While Tunisia and Mali have been consistent performers at the marquee African football event, I’m sure South African fans refuse to accept that Bafana Bafana may be early casualties.

Writing off any South African sports team is not recommended and the neighbourly derby is sure to deliver another fiery classic.

That makes the game between Namibia vs South Africa possibly the biggest game we have to play. My gut says we’ll win the game, but it could jjust as realistically be a draw.

Nonetheless we are backing the Tafel Lager Brave Warriors and coach Collin Benjamin to deliver the goods and to cause an upset as underdogs.