Hockey

Namibia’s women finished 10th and the men 12th after both teams lost their final playoff matches at the Indoor Hockey World Cup in Poland on Saturday.

The women’s team lost 4-1 to Argentina, after trailing 2-1 at halftime, while the men lost 8-0 to the United States, after trailing 2-0 at the break.

Men - Namibia v. USA: 0-8 (0:2)

There was elation and unbridled joy in the Namibian camp on Friday, as their women’s team won their first match at the World Cup, beating Uruguay 1-0.

Charlize van der Linde scored the winning goal early in the second half when she ran onto a Maggie Mengo throughball to slot the ball home from close range.

Uruguay had numerous short corners but Namibia defended superbly to hold on for a historic victory - Namibia’s first ever victory at the Indoor Hockey World Cup.

“It was a fantastic feeling to score the winning goal,” Van der Linde told Namibia Sport.

Namibia continued to struggle at the Indoor Hockey World Cup in Poznan, Poland on Thursday, as its men and women’s teams lost both their matches without scoring a goal.

Namibia’s men lost 10-0 to Poland after trailing 5-0 at halftime, and then lost their second match 6-0 to Canada after trailing 3-0 at halftime.

Namibia’s women lost 8-0 to Poland after a halftime deficit of 2-0 and then lost 6-0 to Australia after trailing 3-0 at halftime.

Namibia’s men and women’s hockey teams continued to suffer heavy defeats on the second day of the Indoor Hockey World Cup in Poland on Wednesday, as the men lost 13-0 to the Netherlands and the women 17-1 to Germany.

Men - Namibia v. Netherlands: 0-13 (0-5)

Namibia started well, with some strong defence but DJ Strauss in goal could not do much on the third penalty-corner for the Dutch after 3m of play. The game was mostly one-sided, although it took the Netherlands until the 12th minute to score again. But from then on they added three more goals before halftime.

Namibia got a rude awakening on the first day of the Indoor Hockey World Cup as their men’s team lost 18-0 to Germany while their women lost 12-0 to Belarus.

The men’s defending world champions, Germany, immediately went on the attack and won a penalty corner in the first minute. Although the penalty corner hit the post, Oscar Deecke was able to convert the rebound.

The Namibian men and women's national indoor hockey teams left Cologne, Germany yesterday for Poland where the World Cup is scheduled to start on Tuesday in Poznan.

As part of their final preparations for the World Cup the teams played a few friendly matches against top German Bundesliga teams.

In their first matches on Tuesday last week both teams suffered defeats at the hands of Rot Weiss Koln’s first teams. The women took a 2-1 lead before eventually losing 5-2.

The Namibian women’s national indoor hockey side started off their final preparations for the World Cup on a good note when they defeated German club Rot Weiss Koln 8-3 in Cologne in Germany on Monday.

Charlize van der Linde and Annalien Davin each scored twice for Namibia with Magreth Mengo, Shayne Cormack, Jerrica Bartlett and Madelyn Lessing each scoring once.

The Namibian men and women’ hockey national teams arrived in Cologne Germany on Sunday where they will have their last preparations before they head to Poznan, Poland for the Indoor World Cup.

While they are in Germany they will play a couple of friendly matches against German Bundesliga teams from Cologne as part of their final preparations.

They will also take part in training sessions and play games against their hosts Rot Weiss Koln.

Siyabonga Martins one of the players on Tuesday said that it was very cold when they arrived in Cologne.

The Namibia men and women’s indoor hockey teams are hard at work preparing for the 2011 Indoor World Cup which will take pace in Poznan, Poland from 8 to 13 February.

The men’s coach, Randy Slabbert said that the team would leave for Germany on January 29 where they will play against some Bundesliga teams as part of their final preparations.

“We are putting the final touches into place before we depart on the 29th of January to Germany where we are hoping to play against five Bundesliga teams before we proceed to Poland,” Slabbert said.

Namibia’s preparations for the 2011 Indoor Hockey World Cup continued to gather momentum, after competing against top South African invitational sides in Cape Town during December.

Namibia’s men’s team competed against invitational sides consisting mainly of Western Province and Natal provincial players as well as a few current and former national players, while Namibia’s women’s team competed against invitational men’s teams consisting of provincial players.