As the World Cup qualifiers heats up in Africa, Nigeria’s qualification suffered a little dent when the Super Eagles played a draw against the Namibians.
In what would have seemed an easy peasy on paper, the African champions had to be led by a lone goal scored by Deon Hotto Kavendji with 13 minutes to go. Nigeria could not afford a loss though they were group leaders and four points above Namibia who certainly needed a win to keep their world cup hopes alive.
Godfrey Oboabona however saved the day for Nigeria with a goal-strike seven minutes to the end of the match to share match points with Namibia. By this draw, it is certain that Namibia is not progressing any further but Nigeria will now need to go into the play-offs with Malawi, who are only two points below Nigeria with seven points. Nigeria will now face Malawi for a run-off in September if they must progress to the next stage of the World Cup.
Similarly, Malawi trailed Kenya to a 2 -2 draw earlier in the day. Malawi needed an outright win over Kenya who had very limited hopes of getting to the world cup before the match. While the draw is of no significant consequence to Kenya, it did for Malawi.
In a related development, Namibian Swedish coach, Roger Palmgren, 50, who only took over the Brave Warriors of Namibia a month ago, lost his courage 48 hours to the match with Nigeria when the toll of death threats to his life made him resign his appointment. The coach, who had hitherto been also in charge of the Sierra Leonean and Namibian national teams, drew surprise from the Namibian football administration.
“Roger did not raise the issue with us so we have not been able to try to find out who is responsible for these threats – we have not had a direct discussion with him.”
“We have never had such a problem before and I am worried – if it is true. I’m not 100% sure if it is true, it would have been good if we had had the chance to investigate.”
By Roger’s exit, Ricardo Manetti has taken up the mantle as the national interim coach. Manetti expressing surprise was quoted as saying: “I’ve been in football for a long time and I’m used to coaches being changed or fired… but I didn’t see this one coming’.
