The tournament is named after its patron, Namibian President Dr. Hage Geingob.
Sundowns remain unbeaten in their pre-season preparations, winning all but one of their games in Mpumalanga and Zambia (drawing one), capping it with the weekend victory in Tshwane where they beat Tuks and Ajax.
The Namibia tournament takes place on Thursday July 23 when preliminaries will be played, and the finals and third and fourth –play-offs take place on July 25.The playing format for the second edition will consist of four teams, two of which will be from Namibia, one team from Angola and the defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
The Namibia Football Association says that the hosting of “ this important competition …will greatly aid in the acceleration of the football talent now being developed through a number of the NFA’s developmental initiatives.”
“As an association we realize that the small number of matches our players play during a season, as a result of the absence of additional cup competitions negatively affects their performances generally and for the national team…. .”
The first game on Thursday features African Stars against a team which will be selected through an SMS process, while Sundowns take on Primeiro de Agosto, a team they will be familiar with following several pre-season games during the mid-season break.
Sundowns will need to tread carefully, however, as the Namibians are determined to take back the title. Despite their limited resources, the country has a history of producing top players – from the days of Pele Blaschke at Chiefs to the current crop of players featuring in the PSL. Ricardo Manettii, who coached the national team to its first success in the COSAFA cup in May, also plied his trade in South Africa.
But first, of course, Sundowns need to overcome the side from Angola.
Sundowns will have a full-strength team. Flying winger Keagan Dolly, who did not feature in the Tshwane tournament, scored the only goal for the national U23 team against Zimbabwe at the weekend, and has not joined the rest of the team as he only arrived back in the country on Monday.
However, coach Pitso Mosimane will have been well satisfied with Dolly’s showing in the other friendlies. The youngster who joined Sundowns from Ajax has made a happy return to his former team. Also on board is Mogakolodi Ngele, who spent the past dsix months on loan with Platinum Stars.
In the post-match interview after the victory over Tuks on Sunday, assistant coach Rhulani Mokoena said that the technical team were pleased with the way preparations were going, adding that the team is about 75% to where they want to be.
The Namibia tournament will go a long way to make that final preparatory push over the next two weeks before the Absa Premiership resumes on August 8.