The national senior women outdoor hockey team on Monday opened their 2022 Hockey Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 3-0 win against Uganda at the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium in Accra, Ghana.

Namibia is currently having two teams competing at the championships which are being held from 17 to 23 January 2022. This is the eighth edition of the women’s Africa Cup of Nations while it’s the 11th for the men’s edition.

In their opening match, team Namibia found the going tough in the two-quarters of the opening match as their opponents controlled the game well. The first and second quarters ended goalless but the team broke the deadlock in the third quarter with two and a half minutes left on the clock from their second penalty corner of the match when Anthea Coetzee made no mistake with her delivery.

With the quarter going into additional time, Coetzee’s brilliant assistance to Sascha Brinkmann saw Namibia score their second goal of the match.

The Ugandan team worked themselves back into the game as they were awarded their second penalty corner of the game but just like their first one the Namibian defence was too strong for them as they blocked it off.

Namibia went on a counter-attack after winning the ball from Uganda’s penalty corner and the Ugandan goalkeeper was yellow carded for preventing the Namibian players from scoring and Namibia was awarded a penalty corner that was not converted.

The last quarter of the match saw Namibia coming back stronger and winning themselves a fourth penalty corner which was also not scored.

Namibia’s third goal of the match came from Jahntwa Kruger’s brilliant pass which found Taramarie Myburgh who made no mistake on a one with the goalkeeper and despite having a three-goal lead Uganda wanted a consolation goal with minutes ticking down but Namibia’s goalkeeper was equal to the task as she doubled saved the attacking Ugandan players.

In an interview after the match, Namibia’s coach Melisa Gillies said she was happy to collect maximum points in their first match of the competition.

“This is a great start to the competition but we are having tough opponents in our next match tomorrow but as for now we are waiting to watch the South African game and see how we can prepare better for them tomorrow,” she said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency