NAMIBIA’s women’s indoor hockey team returned home as heroes on Monday after beating South Africa 2-0 in the Africa Cup final in Durban on Sunday to qualify for next year’s Indoor World Cup in Belgium.
A small but buzzing crowd welcomed them back at the Hosea Kutako International Airport and burst into spontaneous applause when captain Maggy Mengo and her team mates walked into the arrival hall, proudly displaying the Africa Cup trophy.
Tim Ekandjo of their main sponsor MTC was also on hand to share a bottle of champagne with the team, while the local media was out in full force to get interviews, photos and videos of Namibia’s latest heroes.
Namibian captain Maggy Mengo said it was a very emotional experience.
"It was more than just a hockey game, we were doing this for our nation and also for Africa. It was a journey that we went through as a team and as the whole hockey union in Namibia, so there were a lot of emotions going on. There were also reflections of the previous qualifier in Swakopmund in 2017, and it was really playing in my mind that we can’t lose the title now that we worked so hard,” she said.
Mengo said she hoped to start preparations soon for the 2022 World Cup which will be held in Lieven, Belgium on 2-6 February 2022.
"I think we will start preparing for the World Cup as soon as possible, because we there are only nine months left. With Covid around there are also a lot of uncertainties, so we need to just be prepared for any date that we are given,” she said.
The Namibian men’s team failed to qualify for the World Cup, after losing 4-1 to South Africa, but their captain DJ Strauss said they had hope for the future.
"It was tough playing South Africa, but the upside is that we have a very young side and in a few years’ time we can make it. It was just on the day, they took their chances and we didn’t, but that’s sport. Winning is easy, but losing is the hard part,” he said.
The president of the Namibia Hockey Union, Marc Nel, said he was very proud of the women.
"I must say was quite surprised, because I didn’t think we could beat South Africa so convincingly. At the last qualifier in Swakopmund we beat them on penalties, but now we beat them 2-0, and the fact that they didn’t score was a fantastic effort and I’m very proud of our girls,” he said.
"The fact that we did it without players like Kiana Cormack and others who didn’t make themselves available for selection, has put a message out to former players and those on the verge of the team that no player is irreplaceable. Besides the captain Maggy Mengo, this is a very young team and to beat an experienced team like South Africa makes me very proud,” he added.
Namibia now joins’ ten other nations that have already qualified for the World Cup, namely Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Ukraine, while one more team from the Pan America qualifiers still has to be determined.
Nel said they would do their utmost to be well prepared for the World Cup.
“We will prepare as much as possible, and try to do better than we did last time when we came ninth. We can easily finish in the top eight, I think we can end anywhere between the fifth and eighth positions,” he said.
“We will discuss our plans over the next two weeks, bit I’d like to host a Four Nations tournament in Namibia with real competitive teams. Australia had previously said that they would love to come here, but only if we have other competitive sides, so we will see if we can host a competitive international tournament with other top teams like Belarus or Ukraine,” he said.
Nel, however, said he was disappointed with the men’s performance.
“I’m a bit disappointed with the men. They also had a young team, but I thought we could have done better than we did in 2017 when we lost 2-1 to South Africa. We should at least draw or beat South Africa, but to lose 6-3, 9-3 and 4-1 is disappointing and I think we are better than that. We have the players, there are even others who didn’t make the team who could beat South Africa, so we need to analyse what went wrong,” he said.
