Namibia beat Malawi

The Brave Warriors beat Malawi 1-0 to top their group and qualify for the quarterfinals of the Cosafa Cup competition on Thursday.

Lazarus Kaimbi scored the winner shortly after half time when he latched onto a long upfield clearance to beat Malawi’s keeper with a cracking 35m shot.

Kaimbi had a great match in midfield, along with Quinton Jacobs and Rudi Louw as Namibia put Malawi under pressure from the start.
Rudi Louw broke clear into the penalty box early on and seemed to be impeded, but the referee failed to award the spot kick and instead booked Louw for simulation.
Kaimbi had several shots on target, but only some great goal keeping kept Malawi’s score sheet clean.
Jeremias Baisako, Quinton Jacobs and Rudi Louw also came close, but the teams went into half time still level at 0-0.

Kaimbi however finally broke the deadlock on 52m when he received a long upfield clearance from goalie Athiel Mbaha, beat his marker, and unleashed a spectacular shot from 35m out that flew into the back of the net.

Malawi tried to come back into the match but they could not penetrate Namibia’s defence, where George Hummel was in fine form, bringing off some fine tackles.
Namibian keeper Athiel Mbaha also brought off some good saves as they held on for the victory.
After the match Kaimbi was awarded the Cosafa Cup Man of the Match award.

The victory saw Namibia overtake Malawi at the top of Group 2 to put them into the quarterfinals where they will face South Africa on Saturday.
The Namibian camp is however still struggling with several injuries and team manager Tim Isaacs said they hoped to call up Sydney Plaatjies and Hartman Toromba to strengthen the team.

“Brian Brendell, Costa Khaiseb and Paulus Shipanga are all injured, so we will ask Cosafa if we can call Hartman and Sydney up to join us. They are both here in South Africa, so it shouldn’t be a logistical problem,” he said.
Plaatjies joined South African glamour club Mamelodi Sundowns at the beginning of the season, while Toromba recently joined Free State Stars.