Football: Cosafa Cup - Seychelles hold Namibia to goalless draw |19 May 2015

The Seychelles senior national team held Namibia to a goalless draw on Sunday afternoon at the Moruleng Stadium in Rustenberg in the opening match of this year’s Council of Southern African Football Associations Cup which is being held in South Africa.

Before the kick-off, Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) president, Seychellois Suketu Patel, gave his opening speech where he spoke of the need to practice fair play in this sport that has the power to unite people from the region as well as the continent and he had a special message to fight against xenophobia.
The two team captains, including our own Ronny Hoareau also read an anti-xenophobia pledge.

As for the match, the Seychelles team were rather defensive against the Namibians who enjoyed a lot of possession but it was Seychelles who had a decent chance in the 40th minute from a Gervais Waye-Hive free kick from 35 yards which forced a good save out of goalkeeper Virgil Vries.

The match followed a similar pattern in the second half and Deon Hotto had the best opportunity of the match in the 52nd minute as lobbed the advancing Seychelles goalkeeper Vincent Euphrasie but the ball rolled agonisingly wide much to the relief of the Seychelles team.

The Seychelles team almost stole all the points with virtually the last kick of the game when Renick Esther broke clear to come face to face with the Namibian goalkeeper but he allowed Vries to get a touch with his outstretched leg to deny him a dramatic winner.

Seychelles team manager Michel Albert told Sports Nation after the match they could have won this match though he was pleased with the point.
“We played well to keep our opponents at bay and even had a great chance to win it but just failed to score. Nevertheless, we are pleased with the result as it was important not to lose the first match and our player, Karl Hall, was voted man of the match,” revealed the Seychelles team manager.

In the other group ‘A’ match, Zimbabwe, who are regarded as one of the favourites for this crown, defeated Mauritius 2-0 with goals from Carlos Rusere and Ronald Chitiyo either side of the half. The Zimbabweans were to face Seychelles yesterday.

R. J-L.