THE Brave Gladiators lost 4-3 to Borussia Bocholt in a friendly match they played as part of their tour to Germany on Sunday.
The three goals for the Gladiators were scored by Merrelle Polster, Emma Naris and Albertha Dawes. Namibia Football Association (NFA) Women’s Desk’s Jackey Gertze was very pleased with the performance of the Gladiators.
‘Borussia Bocholt is a top league team and the Namibian girls really played well with very impressive displays by Sherley Cloete and the Under 16 team star Emma Naris who is only 14 years old and plays for the JS Academy,’ she said.The Gladiators won their first friendly match against HAMM Sports Club 8-0 on July 20. In that match, Sherley Cloete scored a hattrick, Emma Naris and Stella Williams scored twice and Poppies Skrywer scored one goal. The next friendly match will be played today. The team is in Germany for a two week training camp that includes professional training and conditioning of the national players. They are also being taught on nutrition and adopting a health diet.They have also watched three matches from the Under 20 Women’s World Cup which is currently underway in Germany. So far they have watched Nigeria vs Mexico, Ghana vs Switzerland and Germany vs North Korea. Steffi Jones, the President of the Germany 2011 Fifa Women’s World Cup Organising Committee and former German international attended the Gladiators training session on July 22. Jones was joined by Nia Künzer who is the NFA Gals and Goals ambassador.Yesterday the team were scheduled to have an official dinner with Westphalia football officials and directors.’We want to strengthen our relationship with them and get advice on how best we as the NFA can develop the women’s game under the current heavy growth in numbers of players starting to play the game,’ Gertze said.’In the near future we want to equip our regional structures to such an extent that they are able to play regular football in each of the regions with- out depending too much on the NFA Women’s Desk,’ she added.The NFA Technical Director, Klaus Staerke, is coordinating the training camp on behalf of both the NFA and the Westphalia region on the invitation of the DFB. The team will return to Namibia on July 31.- namibiasport.com.na
