Inline Hockey team makes history in Italy

NAMIBIA’s inline hockey team made history by winning the Nations Cup and finishing ninth overall at the Inline Hockey World Championships in Asiago, Italy over the weekend.

In the final for the Nations Cup trophy on Saturday, Namibia gave a great performance to beat Colombia 4-3 after leading 2-0 at halftime.

Colombia were the favourites, having finished among the top eight nations in the world last year. This year, however, they had a poor start to their campaign and after defeats to Italy, Spain, the United States and Canada they were relegated to the Nations Cup for teams ranked ninth to 16th.

Colombia regrouped and after convincing victories against Australia (6-1) and England (5-1 in the semifinals), they qualified to meet Namibia in the final.

Namibia started their campaign off in great style and after winning their first four matches against Latvia (1-0), China (14-0), New Zealand (4-3) and Poland (8-2) they were just one victory away from qualifying for the top eight World Cup for the first time.

They, however, lost 7-3 to Canada and after another 4-2 defeat to Switzerland were relegated to the Nations Cup.

Namibia got off to a great start in their play-off matches, beating Germany 13-1 and then New Zealand 4-1 to qualify for the final against Colombia.

Liam Strydom gave Namibia an early lead with two goals in two minutes midway through the first half, but Colombia opened their account a minute into the second half.

Namibia struck back as Liam Strydom completed his hat-trick two minutes later, but Colombia once again scored to reduce the deficit to 3-2.

Both sides lifted the tempo in the final frantic minutes and Chayton Haberl scored to put Namibia 4-2 ahead with four minutes left to play.

Colombia replaced their goalie with an outfield player and the tactical move paid off when they scored to reduce the gap to 4-3 with three minutes to go.

Colombia attacked relentlessly in the final stages, but Namibia’s goal keeper Ruben Bacher brought off some fantastic saves to protect their lead and secure the victory.

It was the first time that Namibia had won the Nations Cup, while their overall ninth position was their best-ever finish, beating their previous best of 11th overall.

Namibian head coach Brian Sobel congratulated the team on a historic performance.

“The junior men of Namibia made history when they won the Nations Cup final at the Inline Hockey World Championships to secure a ninth place overall. Never before has a Namibian men or junior men’s team finished so high in the rankings,” he said.

“All of this was accomplished with seven of 14 players who were rookies or first-time players at the World Championships. The Namibians played with passion, honour and determination and have made their country proud,” he added.

Namibia showed great resolve to reach the final after coming from behind to beat New Zealand 4-1 in the semifinals.

New Zealand took the lead shortly before halftime, but Namibia stepped up the tempo after the break to win the match in style.

Two goals within two minutes by Chayton Haberl and Amandus Roettcher put them ahead for the first time, while two late goals by Liam Strydom and Wim van der Plas completed their victory.

Liam Strydom was Namibia’s top goal scorer at the tournament with 11 goals, while Amandus Roettcher and Wim van der Plas were joint second with six goals each.

Ivan Reviglio and Chayton Haberl scored five goals each, and Max Finkeldey, Stefan Bartsch and Christiaan Coetzee four goals each.

The World Cup was won by the United States who beat Italy 6-2 in the final, while Spain beat France 3-0 in the bronze medal match.

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