Ongos off to winning start in league

FC Ongos defeated visitors Young Brazilians 1-0 at the Independence Stadium in Windhoek during their first encounter of the 2026/2027 Namport Namibia Premier League on Saturday. The home team's goal came through a penalty, which was converted by Nicodemus Haikali in the first half.

Ongos finished the fourth on the log standings during the previous season, 10 points behind eventual winners, African Stars. Ongos head coach, Leslie Notsi praised his team's resilience which helped them overcome the Young Brazilians onslaught.

"Our opponents came strong in the first ten minutes, which was something that we expect. We were able to absorb and keep up with it.

We created goalscoring opportunities, but we were not clinical. They came back stronger in the second half, but we were able to manage those areas that they were capitalising on.

It was a very tough match, but at the same time I give my players credit for showing up when it was tight for them. They showed resilience and that is what I appreciate," he said.

Spending only one season in the lower, tiers, Karasburg-based Young Brazilians bounced back to the topflight of Namibia football after earning promotion from the Namibia First Division Southern Stream. Their head coach, Richard Gariseb said the team's main goal is to keep their Premier League status.

"One thing that I got from the management is to keep our Premier League status, so we are going to collect as many points as we can in the first part of the season and take it from there in the second part," said Gariseb. Despite the away side's dominance though out the match, they could not find an equaliser.

The head coach lamented his team's inability to convert goalscoring chances in the match, saying it was the deciding factor in the outcome of the result. "I think this match was very even and we very much in the game because we created many chances.

We also dominated possession and keeping the ball, we had some positives and we were pressurising their goal - we created chances. It was just that we were unlucky that we conceded the penalty and they scored from that, but we didn't give up."