NamibiaSport

Namibia lost their opening two matches at the Women’s World Inline Hockey Championships. On July 6 Finland beat Namibia 3-1 and on July 7 Canada beat Namibia 5-1. Namibia now face two more tough matches against the Czech Republic and France on July 8. Gudrun Denker reports.



Namibia's women's inline hockey team lost its opening two matches at the World Championships against Finland and Canada.

July 7: Canada 5 Namibia 1

Today our ladies faced the giants of ladies Inline Hockey - Canada. It was quite a nervous bunch that left this afternoon to the rink but the ladies seemed focussed and ready to put up a good fight.

Canada started off with a bang, and opened the scoreboard only 2 minutes into the game. The Namibian ladies played a defensive game with as much man-on-man marking as possible and tried to keep the Canadians from having shooting opportunities.

Canada managed another goal at 5m into the first period followed by their third goal just a minute and half later. Canada was leading 3-0 at this stage. Everyone was expecting a runaway score when Canada put another goal into the net at 10m into the first period. The rest of this half the Namibian ladies defended like crazy and kept the Canadians from scoring again. Half time score was Canada 4, Namibia 0.

The second period started with our squad fighting back with a vengeance and never-say-die attitude. Nine minutes into the second period, Julika Pahl scored Namibia's first goal assisted by Stefanie Gantz. With two penalties in the second period against Namibia the team played three on four but kept the Canadians from scoring until the 11th min of the second period, when Jackie Jerrel scored Canada’s fifth goal.

The Namibian ladies did not give up and the final score was Canada 5, Namibia 1. Everyone expected a big runaway score by Canada, and we feel very proud of the way the girls played and kept the score against them low. Spectators, officials and other squads alike were impressed by the performance of the Namibian ladies - and Canada complemented our team by saying that Team Namibia was the best opponents they had played in a long time.

July 6: Finland 3 Namibia 1

Finland opened the scoreboard at 6m into the first period converting a power play goal. The first half was dominated by the Namibian ladies who had most of the puck possession but just could not put points on the scoreboard. Namibia were also awarded three penalties during the first period, to one of Finland.

The second period started with Finland leading 1-0. Five minutes into the second period, Namibia corrected the scoreboard by adding their first point scored by Mari Schmidt, assisted by Danielle Schmidt.

The teams were level for a long time, until 16 minutes into the second period when Finland scored their second goal, followed by another one just 2m later. The final score was Finland 3, Namibia 1.

On July 8 we will come up against two big tests as we face the Czech Republic as well as France. Our national ladies team will wear black bands in memory of Quintin and Sonja Kotze's youngest daughter - Jessica - who passed away on Saturday.