Women's team climbs from 12th to sixth at World Cup

The best finishes in history for both its national men’s and women’s teams were cause of celebration for Namibia Hockey as the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup concluded in Porec, Croatia, on Sunday.

Under coach Shayne Cormack, Namibia’s women finished in a competitive sixth position – beating their previous best of ninth at the 2018 Indoor World Cup and showing much greater resolve than the disappointment of 12th at the world event two years ago.

Meanwhile, the men matched their eighth place at the 2023 Indoor World Cup in Pretoria.

It was the first World Cup at which both Namibian teams reached the quarter-final stage.

On Sunday, the women went down 6-1 to Belgium in the fifth-place play-off, while the men lost 5-4 to Iran in the seventh-place play-off, with some exceptional saves by the Iranian goalkeeper preventing a better outcome.



Individual standouts

John-Paul Britz fired ten goals in six matches at this World Cup, of which eight were off penalty corners, proving his accuracy at the set piece. His total placed him in seventh position on the list of leading men’s goal scorers, headed by South Africa’s Mustaphaa Cassiem (17) and Switzerland’s Philippe Simar (20 goals).

John-Paul’s brother David came through strongly in the later matches, providing some magic moments with his three goals, along with Liam Hermanus (five goals), Ernest Jacobs (three) and the other pair of brothers, Fagan Hansen (three) and Dakota Hansen (two).

Tara-Marie Myburgh finished highest of the Namibian women’s goal-scorers, with five (placing her tenth on the tournament’s list).

Kiana-Che Cormack (three goals) and Azaylee Philander (two) also struck at vital times.

Germany’s 24-year-old Ines Wanner racked up 14 goals in the tournament, ably supported by her second-placed teammate Philin Bolle with 12.



Closing the gap

Namibia men’s coach Trevor Cormack said they are closing the gap on the top teams.

“It’s always a privilege and an honour to play a side like Iran. They were ranked second in the world before the tournament, so even though they were playing for seventh position, they are still a very good team and we pushed them close.”

“I think we are currently one goal away from being a top six team, so that’s what we will take back from this World Cup and start preparing on the next one,” Cormack added.

He reckons there was a measurable improvement on their previous performance when they also came eighth in 2023, since his team lost by just one goal to the second, third and fourth ranked teams.

In a memorable play-off match against Australia, Namibia came back from 1-7 down after the third quarter, to lose 6-7.

“I think currently the difference between the losses is, we are not being overly creative. I think we are too careful early on, and when there’s nothing to lose, we come out with more intent, so I think we just need to get a little bit more creative and take risks early on, which might pay off.”



Small margins

Women’s coach Shayne Cormack said she was proud of her players.

“(Belgium) was a tough game, but we still ran out believing we could win it and I’m really happy with the heart that our players showed.

“One or two decisions didn’t go our way, and that affected the game a little. When they were leading 1-0, Belgium had six players on the court and normally you would get a short corner, while they get one player sent off, so if we had scored in that moment and actually got the decision the score could have been 1-1 and it could have changed the momentum.

“But unfortunately, it didn’t go that way and that got in our heads a little bit. It’s hard to come back from five goals down, but still the girls went out trying, and I’m very proud of them,” she said.