DESPITE being knocked out of the Afcon finals, Brave Warriors coach Bobby Samaria is determined to end their campaign on a high against Guinea on Sunday.

"We are professionals and we need to go all out to win the game. We are playing at our fortress, the Sam Nujoma Stadium, and we must improve on our last performance here. We also want to climb up the Fifa rankings, so it's a very important game for us," he said yesterday.

Namibia's faint hopes of qualifying for next year's finals in Cameroon came to an end when Guinea beat Mali 1-0 in Conakry on Wednesday night, a result that ensured that the two west African nations qualified for the finals, and Samaria said he was not surprised by the outcome.

"It's like we expected, that Mali would win. We were hoping that Mali would play their part, but both are West African and French speaking nations and we anticipated they talked to each other before the match. Unfortunately Mali conceded a goal in the 75th minute and our destiny was not in our hands," he said.

Samaria expressed disappointment at not qualifying, but said that the team had made progress under his guidance.

"When I was offered this job my mandate was to take the team to the Chan finals, which we did when we beat Comoros home and away on aggregate. Then the World Cup qualifiers came up and my mandate was extended to the World Cup and Afcon qualifiers. So of the three goals we have reached two - Chan and the World Cup qualifiers - at our first attempt, and for me that's a noteworthy achievement," he said.

"This is my first time as the national coach and if you compare my record with previous technicals teams, they didn't qualify on their first or second attempt.

So it's a work in progress, we need to keep the belief, but I'm sure that with the quality of players we have, we can only improve," he added.

Winger Deon Hotto sat out Tuesday's training session due to a niggling injury, but Samaria said it was not serious.

"Deon played a full game at training yesterday and he's fine and will be available on Sunday. He looked very good, and in fact, the whole team looked very good," he said.

Manfred Starke was the last foreign-based player to join the team on Wednesday and, except for the absence of Ryan Nyambe, Petrus Shitembi and the suspended Elmo Kambindu, Samaria will have a strong squad at his disposal.

It includes several foreign-based professionals who have been in fine form with their clubs like Hotto, Peter Shalulile, Virgil Vries, Ananias Gebhardt, Riaan !Hanamub and Joslin Kamatuka in the Dstv Premiership; Tiberius Lombard and Willy Stephanus in Zambia; and Wangu Gome in Armenia.

With several other local-based stalwarts like Vitapi Ngaruka, Ivan Kamberipa, Aprocius Petrus, Absalom Iimbondi, Marcel Papama and Issaskar Gurirab aiming for starting berths, the competition will be tight, while it will also be interesting to see if Samaria gives any of the u20 newcomers a run on Sunday.

Due to Covid regulations spectators will not be allowed at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, but NBC will televise the match, which starts at 15h00 on Sunday.

Copyright The Namibian. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source News Service English