Namibia: Warriors Not Fit Enough - Tom

	Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article

The Namibian (Windhoek)

29 August 2008
Posted to the web 29 August 2008

Corry Ihuhua

BRAVE Warriors Tom Saintfiet says the fitness level of the players who are currently in camp is not up to scratch, but he believes they will be ready for their encounter against Kenya next weekend.

Namibia meet Kenya in an away match in Nairobi for their second last 2010 African Nations/World Cup qualifier on September 6, before they take on Zimbabwe in Windhoek on October 12.

Saintfiet said he was generally happy with the commitment and high morale of the 33 players he called into camp late last week, but was not entirely satisfied with their level of fitness.

He said this is because no matches are currently taking place in the domestic leagues and some teams have not yet started with pre-season training.

"I am worried about this (fitness) at the moment, but I think by later next week and with the foreign-based players set to join us, we will have a team which will be fit and match ready," he said.

He said it was unacceptable for players to remain idle even if the league has ended.

"It is important for players to keep themselves fit during the off-season.

I will not accept a situation were players have to start from scratch to get fit when called up to the national team training camps.

They have to train on their own and be ready for the next season.

At least we have to meet each other halfway," he said.

The locally based players will be released this weekend to take a break before the final team from the 33 flies to Johannesburg on Monday.

The team will be chopped to about 15 players, as only 18 players will be expected to make it to Kenya for the do-or-die encounter.

Saintfiet said he will have foreign-based players such as Collin Benjamin, Meraai Swartbooi, Wilko and Oliver Risser, Rudolph Bester, Richard Gariseb and two or three others who competed at the Cosafa Cup for the Kenya trip.

"I want to have as strong a team as possible and it will be important to have the experienced players and who are currently in great form at their clubs for the Kenya match," he said.

Saintfiet, who took charge of the team after former Dutch coach Arie Schans was fired about three months ago, said he wants to look at more players after the Kenya match.

"I plan to include several more players to look at how they shape up for the national team.

But the plan now is to work with the current team, especially the ones who played in the Cosafa Cup.

They understand the system now, but I want the ones who come in to also adapt and know what is expected from them," he said.

Saintfiet has included five goalkeepers in his training group for the week.

They are Esau Tjiuoro from Civics, Heribert Kapeng of Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW), Helmuth Maletsky of Orlando Pirates, Virgil Vries also from Pirates and Danzyl Bruwer, who is currently clubless.

Initially, he had Stars goalie Maximillian Mbaeva, Tjiuoro, Vries and Kapeng, but added Maletsky and Bruwer as he was impressed by them.

"I included both Helmuth and Danzyl to train with us.

They did well over the few days at training and I decided to keep them for now just to have a more expansive and variable goalkeeping department," he said.

On the lack of friendly matches ahead of major international games, Saintfiet said he was not happy, and it was unfortunate that the other countries did not want to play Namibia on the Fifa dates.

"It would be ideal to have one or two friendly matches against good opposition, but if we cannot find anyone to play with, we have to do it at home."

He said they played a friendly match on Sunday against a selected team to test match fitness and the players did well.

He said after the Kenya match, Namibia will possibly play against Swaziland, but the match has not yet been confirmed.

Read comments. Write your own.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Share this on: Facebook Digg Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Muti

Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >>

Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account

Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement.