The Namibian senior women’s national hockey team is set to face New Zealand today in their second match of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Indoor World Cup in Poreč, Croatia. The highly-anticipated clash will kick off at 13h10. 

Fresh off a thrilling 3-2 victory over Australia on Monday, the Namibian women are full of confidence. Australia’s Kelsey Hughes opened the scoring early, but Namibia quickly responded through Taramarie Myburgh’s equaliser. 

In the second half, Australia regained the lead courtesy of Annelyse Tavent’s strike, but Myburgh’s second goal kept Namibia in the game. With less than three minutes remaining, Jivanka Kruger found the back of the net to seal the victory for Namibia. 

“We were tested, but we prevailed,” said Gillian Hermanus, captain of the team. “We’re excited to move on to the next one.” 

Kruger, Namibia’s player of the match, and who rounded off a series of exquisite passes to fire her team home, warned: “Just watch us for the whole week we never ever give up.” 

Head coach Shayne Cormack was equally proud of the team’s performance. “We’ve achieved our first goal, but we remain humble and focused on what’s next. We have a lot of prayer warriors behind us. We received a lot of messages and a lot of people proud of us. It’s a really beautiful story,” she said. 

In the men’s competition, the Namibian senior men’s team faced a tough 7-4 defeat to Belgium. Despite an early lead, they struggled to maintain momentum and ultimately fell short. 

“We are disappointed, as we started the match off great. We scored first, and let them in with a few first goals. It was tight till half-time, and we just let it go. We can’t win games if we don’t score. We can’t defend all the time, and we will have a look at that and see how we can minimise their opportunities and maximise ours.,” said the team’s captain, PJ Strauss. 

They will line up against Trinidad and Tobago today at 10h30. -lmupetami@nepc.com.na