Warriors to leave for Mauritania this weekend
NAMIBIA’S Young Warriors will depart this weekend for Mauritania ahead of their participation in the much-anticipated Africa U/20 Cup of Nations, which will mark their maiden appearance at the continental tournament.
Warriors head coach James Britz yesterday said the U/20 Cup of Nations, which starts on 14 February until 4 March, is an exciting opportunity and they are going there to compete as serious contenders. The team will leave on Saturday and Britz will announce his travelling party tomorrow morning.
“We have a good team and making our first appearance as a country the boys will surely plan to impress and leave a mark on the continent. We face two other debutants in Tunisia and Central African Republic (CAR) and so it will be equal footing. We will go early to make sure we acclimatize well and see if we can get a friendly match or two before the finals start.”
Namibia are in Group B with Tunisia, CAR and Burkina Faso. “We have not faced them before and that makes it interesting to play them. We will plan for each of them accordingly and anything is possible,” said Britz.
The Young Warriors will begin their campaign against Central African Republic, before facing Tunisia in their second game, and will conclude the group stages with Burkina Faso.
Host nation Mauritania are in Group A with Cameroon, Uganda and Mozambique while Group C is made up of Ghana, Tanzania, Gambia, Morocco.
This will be the first edition of the Africa U/20 Cup of Nations to be expanded to 12 teams instead of the usual eight and would have seen the top four finishers qualify for the 2021 FIFA U/20 World Cup in Indonesia as Africa’s representatives, but unfortunately FIFA decided to cancel the World Cup due to Covid-19.