Namibia ready for the World Cup 

Namibia’s indoor hockey women’s team got the perfect send-off for next week’s World Cup with an emphatic 4-1 win against Croatia on Wednesday night.

In a hard-fought, physical encounter, Namibia held a narrow 1-0 lead at halftime, but their constant pressure told after the break as they ran out comfortable winners. 

Two goals by Danja Meyer and one each by Marika Neethling and Azaylee Philander completed a commanding victory. 

That victory gave them a 2-0 series win and was a big improvement after a lacklustre 1-1 draw in their second test the previous day, leaving coach Shayne Cormack pleased and proud.

“I’m happy with the girls tonight – their connections were much better, we tried different line changes which worked and I’m really, really happy. 

I just saw the improvements tonight, the trust was there and they played the phases very well, so I’m really happy with the results,” she said. 

It was quite a physical and intense match, but Cormack said they needed a contest like that. 

“We need to manage that better. I think we need to just get stuck in as well because they’re winning the 50-50 balls, so we’ve got to learn from that. The umpire’s not giving us the ball. We’ve got to fight for the ball just as hard as they do. But we hit that circle, we took shots, we took risks and got the rewards.”

She said they will now start preparing for their opening match at the World Cup against Australia on Monday. 

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s rest day, but then we’re going to just get into the zone again. We’ll get some footage on Australia and then we’re going to start all over again,” she said, adding that she believed Namibia can beat Australia.

“I really believe we can beat them. They are ranked fifth in the world, while we are 12th, so on stats, they should get the win. But anything’s possible, we’ve prepared really well, and our girls believe in themselves, so we’re definitely going to go out and take the game to them,” she said. 

Cormack’s daughter and star midfielder Kiana Cormack said all the players improved a lot after the second test. 

“We got through a lot of the things that we spoke about and we achieved a lot of the outcomes, so we’re very happy with the win and with winning the series. I think our performance was really good and a lot of the other players definitely stepped up tonight and that was nice to see,” she said. 

“Croatia is a very physical team. I think the first game we were just having fun but the second day they came out quite hard, so we were a little bit more prepared for that. But that’s exactly how it’s going to be at the World Cup, so it’s good preparation for us so that we can be ready for that physicality,” she added. 

Cormack said they are confident and looking forward to the World Cup.

“We definitely want to finish in the top two in our pool, I think its possible and then we’ll take it from there and see how the quarterfinals go. I think we have a good chance and we are looking forward to it,” she said.