Staff Reporter.
A spectacular overhead kick goal from Elmo Kambindu steered Namibia to a 1-0 win over Togo in a CAF second round 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying match, at Stade de Kégué in Lome on Sunday.
Victory moved the Brave Warriors top of Group H on four points, one ahead of Senegal who are away to Congo in Brazzaville on Tuesday.
Both teams were desperate for a positive result in Lome. Togo lost away to Senegal earlier this week while Namibia squandered a lead to draw at home to Congo at Orlando Stadium.
The Sparrowhawks looked threatening on attack, but Namibia’s defence matched everything the hosts threw at them and having successfully weathered the storm, the Brave Warriors pounced with a spectacular goal in the 53rd minute of the match.
Charles Hambira directed Deon Hotto’s free-kick into the path of Kambindu who reacted instinctively with a stunning bicycle-kick finish, which whistled past Malcolm Barcola in the Togo goal.
The strike proved to be the difference on the day and a deserving winner at that.
Next up for Namibia is back-to-back matches against Senegal while Togo will be aiming to register their first point in home-and-away fixtures against Congo in October.
Meanwhile Ghana arrived in Johannesburg with a 25-man squad but without six regulars to take on South Africa in their World Cup qualifier at Soccer City on Monday.
Coach Charles Akonnor must do without the Leicester City pair of Daniel Amartey and Jeffrey Schlupp, defenders Andrew Yiadom and Baba Abdul Rahman from Reading and key forward Jordan Ayew, who plays for Crystal Palace.
The six would have to face quarantine on their return to Britain if they had travelled to South Africa.
All six players featured in Ghana’s nervy 1-0 home win over Ethiopia on Friday, which means there will be considerable changes for the Group G encounter.
Two other players missing trip are Stade Rennes’ new signing Kamaldeen Suleymana and Daniel Kyereh of German side St Pauli, who were also barred from the game by their clubs.
Coach Charles Akonnor also had to do without absentees on the Black Stars’ last visit to Soccer City but earned a 1-1 draw that booked them a ticket to the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon early next year.
But Mohammed Kudus of Ajax Amsterdam, who scored in that match and also against South Africa at Cape Coast last November, is out injured.
Elsewhere Morocco’s national football team was “safe” on Sunday in the Guinean capital Conakry, a Moroccan official said, after army putschists said they had staged a coup in the west African country.
Scheduled to face Guinea in a Monday qualifier for the 2022 World Cup, the Moroccans “are safe and currently in a hotel some way away from where things are tense”, Mohamed Makrouf of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) told AFP.
The federation “is working on evacuating the team today. There’s already a plane at the airport”, he added.
In a statement, world football body Fifa said the match would be postponed “to ensure the safety and security of all players and to protect all match officials”.
Heavy gunfire was heard in central Conakry on Sunday, as the putschists claimed they had arrested President Alpha Conde, sending AFP a video showing the head of state surrounded by soldiers.
But the government said in a statement of its own that it had “repulsed” an attack on the presidential palace.
Guinea – one of the world’s poorest countries despite boasting significant mineral resources – has long been beset by political instability.