Windhoek — Football is a very passionate sport, it seems to make people have short memories, the team wins today and they love the coach. However, if the team loses all the good history is forgotten and fans call for the coach's head.

This is what has happened to Tom Saintfiet and the national team after the loss against Zambia in the COSAFA Senior Challenge.

If one puts this result into context as opposed to isolating it, you will realise that this is the first time the Brave Warriors have lost in more than a year. This fact is compounded with the fact that the team that travelled to Harare was lacking a total of 11 players. These players would have been higher in the pecking order in terms of starting places.

The national team record since last year July stands as follows: 12 official FIFA matches, five wins, five draws, and only two losses. In the process, the team has found the back of their opponents' net 19 times and conceding only seven goals.

All these good results, according to Saintfiet, were achieved using the same tactics which people are criticising today after the 1-0 loss.

"We were playing the same way with the same tactics six months ago and we played the same against Zambia," he said. People forget that we lacked the services of many of our foreign-based professionals for the tie".

He however mentioned that Zambia were the better team on the day but says he was satisfied with the overall team performance against a much stronger and technically gifted opponent.

"We have to admit, Zambia were much stronger that us on the day but, I will not blame the players because they played their hearts out for the nation".

He says the team could have played better but, he said Namibia are not Brazil, Germany or Italy for people to expect it to win every game.

Saintfiet applauded the performance of goalkeeper Attiel Mbaha and the defence but felt the problem was upfront where the team could not get the ball.

"I am not losing any sleep over this," he said.

"Everybody at the NFA supports us and is focussed on our main objective which is to build a team for the African Cup of Nations qualifiers later next year.

"The unavailability of our foreign-based players gave me a chance to develop the squad and try-out more players.

Saintfiet says the 1-0 loss does not worry him as much as a 4-0 or 5-0, or 6-0 loss which he says would then show a fundamental weakness in the squad.