The world championships will be held in Ingolstadt, Germany.

The newly upgraded SFC Hall at Swakopmund was the venue for the first re-qualification open inline hockey game between the two countries, a match which Namibia narrowly lost 3-2.

At the 2007 IIHF World Championships in Passau this year, Team Namibia managed to win convincingly against South Africa.

The final score in Passau was 8-3 with Basti Faber being the activator for the Namibian squad.

In Swakopmund there were four periods at 12 minutes each being played with stop time.

Under the watchful eye of the IIHF officials and Ben //Naobeb from the Namibian Sports Commission (NCS), the game started at noon.

Four minutes into the game, South Africa scored on Team Namibia with an unassisted goal by Chris Lategan.

Team RSA added a second goal in the first quarter, taking a 2-0 lead into the start of period two.

As the second quarter commenced, Team Namibia began to assert themselves with better puck movement and smarter passing.

Team Namibia were rewarded when Oliver Lohmeier sent a well-placed pass to Vincent van Biljon who scored Namibia's first goal, bringing them back into play at 2-1.

However, Team Namibia lost their newly gained momentum when South Africa scored a third goal at the 20h45 mark, increasing the lead to 3-1 into the half-time break.

Team Namibia played a good second half, being strongly in possession of the puck through the remaining two periods.

However, the host players could not find an opening past the South African goalkeeper, Ashley Bock, who guarded his net tenaciously.

Team Namibia placed heavy pressure on the South African defence for the entire second half, but only managed to score a second goal with six and a half minutes left in the final period, when Marco Debortoli passed the puck to Vincent van Biljon who neatly placed into the net.

Though Team Namibia tried intensely to score for the remaining six minutes of the game, a strong South African defence held tight.

The return and final game of the re-qualification match will be hosted by South Africa on Saturday in Johannesburg.

However, Team Namibia now face an uphill battle to re-qualify, as they have to beat South Africa by two or more goals to make it to Ingolstadt next year.

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