Starlile remain in control

Football
A win for ten-man Civics, and a 5-1 drubbing handed out by Unam FC were features of round 2.
Tielman Van Lill
  • 10 Months Ago
The second weekend of the Namibia Football Association’s Debmarine Premier League produced a game of contrasting halves between reigning champions African Stars and Young African at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday.

Although Stars won the encounter by two goals to zero, it was only during the second half that the Samba Boys properly arrived. The first 45 minutes of “action” could be described as sleepy, with the supporters getting restless on the packed stand.

Not even the introduction of Steven Hamaseb in the first half could spark Starlile. However, with the presence of Youssouf Ibroihim on the field things starting to materialize for Stars.

Within the first minute of the second half an attack in midfield ripped the Young African defence open, with the dangerous Willy (Awilo) Stephanus striking form continuing from ten metres in front of the goal box with only the Young African goalkeeper to beat.

With Stephanus again in the forefront, Stars repeated the same move a couple of minutes later to lead by 2-0.

It never looked likely that Young African would bother Stars’ defence. The few chances they created were easily dealt with by the Stars gloves man to keep the full-time score at 2-0.

Stars are the defending champions and have now also won two out of two in the 2023-2024 season.

Unam a handful

At Unam Stadium, Unam FC stormed to a 5-1 win against NPL newcomers Okakarara Young Warriors.

Godwin Eiseb, Unam’s lanky number 10, scored a brace in the second half, following earlier strikes by Paulus Amutenya (7th minute), Friedemann Goraseb (22 minutes) and Donaldson Makaru (50 minutes).

The Okakarara team’s only reward came after 27 minutes through Deon Gariseb. The Young Warriors had earlier shown promise with a 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Blue Waters at Okahanda.

• At SKW Stadium, Civics overcame a red card to Denzel Narib, who received two yellow cards during the second half, on their way to a determined 3-2 win over Young Brazilians.

The visitors from Karasburg created more opportunities in midfield, but only had two goals by Karel Gaseb to show.

Civics’ goals were scored by Jarius Tongeni, Rivaldo Gawanab and Isador Jagger.

• Hosts Okahandja United overcame the significant challenge of Blue Waters by securing a 2-1 win at the Nau Aib Stadium.

The Walvis Bay side could only muster one goal, by Erastus Kulula.

• Strikes by Gustav Pienaar, just after halftime, and Patrick Amutyakala (52 minutes) gave Orlando Pirates a 2-1 win on Friday night, after Elago Simon had put Ongos FC in the lead after 23 minutes at SKW Stadium.

• Spoils were shared in the Otjiwarongo derby on Friday, as Life Fighters and Mighty Gunners played to a 1-1 result.

Shaun Nauseb scored for the Gunners, while Max Kandundu replied for Life Fighters.

• On Thursday night at SKW Stadium, Brave Warriors striker Absalom Iimbondi scored both the goals for Khomas Nampol that sunk his former team Tigers by 2-1.

– tielman@republikein.com.na