Namibia’s junior men lost their opening three matches at the FIRS 2016 Inline Hockey World Championships in Italy, while the senior women won one and lost one match.
Junior Men:
Pool A, consisting of the Czech Republic, Canada, Slovenia, Colombia and Namibia is a really tough one, which includes the multiple world championship winners, Czech Republic; inline hockey heavyweight, Canada, and another favourite, Slovenia. Although well-trained, 12 out of Namibia’s 14 players are playing at the World Championships for the first time.
Namibia 3 Colombia 3
The Namibian Junior Men’s team went into their match against Colombia motivated and prepared for a win against one of the unfancied teams in Pool A. However, although Namibia were 2-1 up at halftime, the Colombians bounced back and managed to force a 3-3 draw.
Colombia were the first to score, followed two minutes later by Namibia’s Tiago Kutz, assisted by Altus Coetzee. The tie was broken two minutes after that by Namibia’s Wim van der Plas.
Altus Coetzee scored Namibia’s third goal early in the second period, but Columbia made a strong comeback, scoring two goals past Namibia’s goalie, Gerrit Pchalek to tie the match.
Czech Republic 13 Namibia 3
The Czech Republic has won six gold medals, one silver and one bronze medal on the nine occasions that the Junior Men’s division of the World Championships has been hosted.
However, the courageous Namibian team, with goalie Kevin Kreiner, was ready and stepped into battle.
The Czech Republic opened the scoring after only 40 seconds and although Namibia managed to find the net three times, the Czech Republic took a commanding 7-3 lead at the break.
Tiago Kutz scored Namibia’s first two goals, assisted by Altus Coetzee and then Erik Rubbert. Namibia’s third goal was scored by Ingo Baas, assisted by Marc Epler.
In the second period Namibia fought hard but the Czech Republic dominated the scoring, to win the match 13-3. Six of the Czech Republic goals were scored by Natan Vrablik.
After the match the FIRS press release stated that “the Africans made life as difficult as possible for the reigning world champions”.
Senior Women
Spain is rated as the favourite in the Senior Women Pool C, with Great Britain having returned to the World Championships as a strong competitor, and the Indian team being new to the competition, thus an unknown opponent.
Spain 8 Namibia 1
Spain is noted for their speed and fast puck exchange. Their coach, Phil Boudreault, also knows the Namibian’s way of playing hockey, having coached Namibia previously.
Namibia’s women went into the game determined and well prepared, but did not manage to score at all. They fought hard and had a few good breaks, but the puck just did not find its way into their opponent’s net.
Spain gradually broke down Namibia’s defence and after taking a 3-0 lead at halftime they went on to win the match 8-0.
Namibia’s however redeemed themselves by beating India 13-1 in their second match, while Namibia’s Junior Men lost 9-1 to Canada in their third match.
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