2014 Qualifiers, Nigeria "Go see Pepe" says Namibian Coach

Coach Bernhard Kaanjuka flipped through pages of Vanguard Newspaper, steadied on the sports pages and immediately disagreed with the story attributed to Victor Moses of Wigan Athletics of England, titled “We will overrun Namibia.”

The Namibians were at the local wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos on their way to Calabar for the 2014 World Cup qualifier. They arrived from Germany where they trained for 10 days. And with them were their German Technical Director, Klaus Starck who took note of the front page story on the death of a kidnapped German Engineer, Edgar Friz Raupach in Kano.

Kaanjuka was friendly and relaxed as they waited to board their flight to Calabar. He has a pretty young team that he says is for the future. “The average age is 23. They are full of youth”, he said of his team. This makes him confident and he hopes that his players will display that confidence in the field on Sunday.

http://www.ghanamma.com/2012/06/nigeria-will-feel-us-namibia-coach-vows/

”We have a young team, a team full of young boys who want to play,” kaanjuka said. And referring to the story on Moses he said. “I don’t agree with this,” pointing to the story in Vanguard.

“We respect Nigerian players and Nigerian football. Nigeria put Africa on football map. Nobody forgets that team of Jay Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Sunday Oliseh etc. That ’96 squad made the whole Africa proud. Up till now, you (Eagles) have big names (pointing at pictures of Ike Uche, Moses and Sone Aluko in Vanguard) and you don’t compare them to what we have. Except two players who play in South Africa, the rest play at home. You have a bigger team but I can tell you one thing, you will feel us on the field. Nigeria will feel us on the field.”

Kaanjuka exuded confidence. With German technical director who, naturally, will inject the strong character of German football and the pace and energy that characterise a youthful side, Kaanjuka hopes to enjoy the game on Sunday and possibly get a result.

”We are not afraid of Nigeria. We respect them but will make them feel us on the field,” he repeated, indicating the resilience they plan to show.

The players were all relaxed too and looked equally confident.

The "Super Eagles" of Nigeria have secured their first three points in the World Cup qualifiers after defeating an inexperience Namibian squad 1-0.

The lone goal of the match came just ten minutes to stoppage time by Ikechukwu Uche. It must be said that Uche was quite prolific in this encounter even though he squandered a lot of goal opportunities.