Gladiators ready for action
By Michael Uugwanga
THE senior women football team, the Brave Gladiators and the country’s female U-20 soccer team, the Baby Gladiators will all be in action this coming weekend in different competitions.
The Brave Gladiators will be in action at the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Women’s Championship that will take place in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa from September 28 to October 9.
The Brave Gladiators are in Group C alongside Uganda, whom they face in their opening group match on September 30 before they take on Zambia on October 3 before finishing off the group clashes with a match against Eswatini.
The Baby Gladiators will fly out to Burundi for the first leg tie of their 2022 African U-20 Women’s World Cup qualification.
Both the Brave Gladiators and the Baby Gladiators have been training at the Namibian Football Association (NFA) Technical Centre.
The Brave Gladiators will head to the COSAFA Cup in high spirits after coach Woody Jacobs told Confidente Sport that he is happy with the progress his players have been putting in training, even though the team will be without its key player and captain Zenatha Coleman who plies her trade in Europe at Seville in Spain, due to club commitments.
“As a coach you always have your options and your combinations that you think might do the trick on the day.
We are going out there with the best on the particular day if everyone stays injury free. I do believe that everyone will step up on the day,” said Jacobs.
The U-20 side is being coached by former Brave Warriors defender Rodney Wallace Doeseb.
The U-20 will be spearheaded by the return of exciting midfielder Beyonce Cloete who will be making a return to football after having last played competitive football in 2020.
“We started with training last week, of which we managed to play some friendly matches over the past weekend to identify the players and the progress is there.
For us this is the development team, but of course if you are in a competition you want to win, so we are going for a win.
From our side we are ready,” said Doeseb.
The return leg between the Baby Gladiators and Burundi is set for October 7 in South Africa.