Team Namibia comes up short in hard fought battle against Japan

After the game against Australia, team Namibia officials had it all figured:  we would have to play against South Africa again. Then both Japan and Great Britain unexpectedly lost their qualification games on Thursday afternoon, dropping both teams into the "losers" bracket. This moved team Namibia from first loser to third loser; immediately bringing Team Namibia into elimination range by the next round. If both Japan and Great Britain had won against New Zealand and Hungary, Namibia would have been first loser... but we were not.

So today's game was against Japan, whom we had lost against (6:3) in our opening game during this World Championships on Sunday. Today though, was a different game. Japan had  won 2 games in the initial qualifications, giving them second place in our group.  However, because of their loss to New Zealand yesterday, they were suddenly facing the prospect of elimination, as they lost during the qualification play-offs.

Australia outlasts Namibia in a tightly contested game

14h00 local time and Australia, as home team, faced Team Namibia for the starting whistle. Oliver Lohmeier in centre, Michaell Ellinger and Riyaan Ely as wings and Basti Farber hovering behind to prawn on the puck flying back towards him. It took only 27 seconds and Faber had the puck in the net. Team Namibia moved nicely and kept the pressure up to add their advantage by a goal from Timo Giersch 3minuts 2seconds into the game. Although Namibia had several shots on the goal, our team was unable to score and it was Team Australia's Daniel Gunn that two minutes later scored their first goal.

In the second quarter Team Australia put the puck in the net at the 14:21 mark, tying Team Namibia at 2:2. Only half a minute later Team Namibia regained the lead when Basti Faber passed to Zaid Ely, who neatly lifted the puck to sneak it into upper right corner of the Australian goal. Team Namibia was playing well, but unforced errors started to creep in as the pressure on our team increased.  Australia scored once again, bringing the half-time score to 3:3, for what was a tightly contested first half.

Team Namibia started the third quarter under heavy pressure, forcing extended playing time onto our first and second lines.  Over time the extra strain and wear on our players began to show through increased unforced errors.  Team Australia finally moved into the lead 33 minutes into the game, going up 4:3 on Australia's Sean Jones second goal of the game.  Team Namibia repeatedly threatened to tie the game, placing extensive pressure on the Australia goal during the third and fourth quarters.  However, luck was not with us as the puck repeatedly just missed the goal or was snatched by the goal keeper.

Goal by Basti Faber

Team Namibia tried to keep their opponent at bay, but time was running out.  A penalty on Namibia with less than two minutes remaining provided Team Australia with the chance to put the game out of reach. This opportunity was used by Australia's Sean Jones, who added his third goal for the match. With only 40 seconds left in the game it was impossible for Team Namibia to turn this around.

Final score: Team Australia 5 : Team Namibia 3.

The final Namibia game for this World Championship will take place on Friday afternoon, when Team Namibia will play against the loser of this evening's Brazil and South Africa game. 

Team Namibia claims rights for best InLine Hockey Team in Southern Africa

Today Namibian Sports Commissioner Ben Naobeb and other Namibian supporters watched a determined Team Namibia enter the IIHF Championship rink at 14h00 local time, as it set out to claim bragging rights for being the best hockey team in Southern Africa. The Namibia lines started strong and were aggressively to the puck, almost immediately pushing South Africa into a defending role that set the tone for the remainder of the game.  Namibia players unleashed a battery of shots, as the puck was sent flying to the left and the right of the goal.  After an intense opening five minutes, Namibia's Basti Faber passed the puck to Oliver Lohmeier in the slot, who in turn, put it into the net for the game's first goal.  Two minutes later, Michael Ellinger passed to Basti Faber and again the puck went flying into the net. South Africa closed the scoring during the first quarter at the 9:31 mark, bringing the South Africans back to within one goal at a score of 2:1.

At 16:49, Michael Ellinger passed to Riyaan Eli, who scored the first goal of the second quarter. Two more Namibia goals quickly followed as Oliver Lohmeir, assisted by Basti Faber, netted our fourth goal, and an unassisted goal by Vincent van Biljon increased the Namibia lead to 5:1.  Namibia and South Africa traded one more goal each during the second quarter, with Namibia's Basti Faber making another unassisted goal, bringing the score to 6:2 at the half.

Basti Faber scored his third goal of the game one minute 12 seconds into the third quarter. Team South Africa was continually pushed into a defending role, as they were heavily penalized throughout the game, frequently forcing the team to play below strength as players set out time in the penalty box.

In the final quarter Zaid Ely added his goal at 38minutes 13seconds. Team South Africa scored almost one minute later.

The final score of 8:3 was Team Namibia's best effort thus far and gives Team Namibia a glimmer of hope to still qualify for the World Championships in 2008 in Austria.

On Wednesday our team has a hockey-free day, while the qualification games between Division 1 and the Top Division are contested.

On Thursday Namibia will face the second place team from Group D, which will be either New Zealand or Australia.

Marco Debortoli on his way to the South African goal.

Great Britain - Namibia

Face-off for today's game started at 18h00 local time. Our team started off strong -although, once again nervous - and managed to hold an aggressive Team Great Britain to a scoreless first quarter.  Fifty-two seconds into the second quarter and Great Britain scored the first goal.  Namibia tied the game with its first score, a goal made by Basti Faber at 15min30.  But it only took Great Britain a short 15 seconds to take the lead for good, scoring what would be the second of five goals during a crushing second period, which ended with Great Britain ahead by 5:1. 

Namibia played Great Britain even during the third quarter, with each team adding a single goal.  Timo Giersch, assisted by Basti Faber, scored our second and final goal after Great Britain had added a sixth goal in the third period. The British team managed to add yet another goal against us in the last quarter, bringing the final score to 7:2.

Team Namibia received a total of 10 penalties during this game, with one being a "game penalty", leaving us a player short for tomorrow's match against South Africa.

Although the final score does not seem to reflect this, Team Namibia significantly increased its level of play compared to yesterday's game against Japan.  Aside from a letdown during the second quarter, Namibia played largely on par with a very strong Great Britain team. 

After two days of play, it is clear that the overall level of competition for the IIHF World Championships has increased, with the gap closing between the traditionally strong countries and the more recently qualified nations. This advanced competition level does not leave a lot of room to make up for unforced errors and requires our young team to focus and improve rather fast.

Thus far, our team has shown that it has the talent and skills to be a competitive force in the Division I.  However, we have yet to put together the type of complete game that results in a victory.  Tomorrow's crucial game against Team South Africa will give Team Namibia another chance to show its Team  spirit, and hopefully play the impressive type of game we know our team is capable of.

The play-off round will start on Thursday.

First Game at the IIHF World Championships 2007 for Team Namibia

Team Namibia played solidly in its two preparatory games, though our opponents were two of the highest ranking teams in the world and amongst the favourites to win the Championship's Top Division.  The first preparatory game was played on Wednesday against Germany's National Team, and it only took 28 seconds for a strong Team Germany to score the opening goal.   However, Team Namibia (strengthened during these preparation games by Phil Boudreault and Stephen Jonsson) responded with a goal of its own to tie the German National Team almost 3 minutes later. This would be our only goal for the game, as the final score was Germany 9: Namibia 1.  Given the significant talent gap between the Top and Second Division Team's, this was a strong performance by Namibia.  Team Germany played against the Czech Republic during the Championship opening game on Saturday night, when they dominated the Czechs 10:0.

On Friday night Team Namibia played Team USA, the world's number one ranked team. The speed of the USA skaters was breath-taking, as was the crispness of their passing and superb teamwork.  It was the best team Namibia has ever faced, but Namibia responded to this challenge and played exceptionally well.  This was a good learning experience for our young team and one that will assist us to grow.  Team USA scored four goals against us during the first quarter, but team Namibia managed to keep the goals to three per quarter for the following three quarters. Team Namibia's Basti Faber scored our one lone goal at 46:19, with the final score reflecting an outcome of 13:1 in Team USA's favour.  Afterwards, Team USA players were highly complimentary of the Namibia effort, stating that Namibia displayed an excellent team effort spearheaded by the solid performance of the Namibia goalie, Erik Rodenwoldt.

After the two preparation games against Team Germany and Team USA respectively, Team Namibia entered the rink tight and nervous for today's Championship opener against Japan. The Namibia Fan corner was filled with 200+ boisterous and supportive Namibians who cheered non-stop for 48 minutes.  Oliver Lohmeier took centre for the opening whistle. Both teams started off strong and played scoreless until Team Japan scored the first goal 5 minutes into the game.  At 8:40 into the game, Vincent van Biljon hit a hard shot in from the side to tie the game at 1:1.  During the second quarter Japan pressured our team into a defending role, while managing to score two more goals on us. Half time had a strong resemblance to our game against Japan in 2006 when the score also was 3:1 against us.

In the third quarter Japan scored twice and Team Nambia's Basti Farber made one goal.

The final quarter was played well by both teams who managed to score one goal each. This left Team Namibia defeated by 6:3.

Tomorrow's schedules has Team Namibia to play Great Britain at 18h00 local time. This will be another challenging game as Great Britain are the number one team in division 1.

Team Namibia 2007 supported by the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport & Culture

On Thursday afternoon team officials from the Namibian Ice & InLine Hockey Association were honoured to receive a cheque from Dr Peingeodjabi Titus Shipoh from the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport & Culture in support of the National Namibian Inline Hockey Squad 2007 in preparation for their tour to Passau/Germany for this year's IIHF World Championships.

Dr Shipoh has been a keen supporter to the Namibian Ice & Inline Hockey Association and other sport codes for many years.

This support comes at the right time where Team Namibia is attending the World Championships for the third time in a row and financial support from the Namibian business community has not been at a level NIIHA hoped for. Players and team officials were requested to finance most of the expenses for the upcoming tour. The cheque to the tune of N$250,000 from the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport & Culture will put the team on a fast tract to attend the World Championships 2007 and represent Namibia for the third time.

Team Namibia will leave for overseas on May 19th to allow for preparation games against Germany as well as Team USA. Both teams are in the top division and Team USA is ranked number 1 winning the Gold Medal against Sweden in 2006.

Dr Peingeodjabi Titus Shipoh handing over the cheque to the NIIHA Sports Director Arndt Asmus
April 12, 2007

Easter Training Camp 2007: ...What is a good Number?

At the Badgers Tournament during mid-March 2007 the final squad for this years Team Namibia has been named and awarded official colours by Mr Naobeb from the Namibian Sports Commission.

The core of the Namibian National Squad 2007 once again is build by players from the Swakopmund Coastal Pirates Club. The Coastal Pirates have set the standard for inline hockey in Namibia. They have been successful as the longest running team in Namibian Inline hockey history.

During the Easter Holidays all players from Team Namibia 2007 attended a training camp in Swakopmund coached by Nath Blair and the assistant coach Mario Troha. Several of our young players continue to travel long hours on road from South Africa for every training camp and dig deep into their pockets to subsidize their travel funds.

The team was taken through many hours of hard physical training to work on the squads level of fitness. Time and again the hall was crossed at top speed by our players. "What is a good number?" Nath would ask the team. Beware if you like high numbers... how many push-ups or sit-ups is one prepared to do?

On Saturday evening the team had a practice game that was well worth watching. Now the countdown is on for Passau/Landshut and although the outlook might be somewhat limited on occasions Team Namibia 2007 can look at the 2007 World Championships with confidence.

Please feel free to contact one of the team officials Ulrike Rodenwoldt, Arndt Asmus or Gudrun Denker if you would like to support the team. Your effort would be greatly appreciated.

NIIHA's Corporate Golf Day a Success

The Corporate Gold day on Thursday, 5th April 2007 turned out to be a success.

41+ companies entered teams to participate or sponsored the event by contributing prices. Many of these companies have a long standing relationship with the InLine Hockey fraternity.

The funds will contribute directly for preparation and expenses related to the 2007 IIHF World Championship tour to Passau in Germany.

NIIHA and the Inline Hockey National Team 2007 greatly appreciate the support of the participating teams and sponsors at the Corporate Golf day.

Namibia raises bar for 2007 Inline World Champs
Article by Kate Nebe

 “Even though the team has produced such outstanding results, we still struggle to find good solid sponsors,” said Asmus. “We are still largely reliant on fund-raising events and individual contributions from players, their clubs and their families. We hope this year will be different and that the business community will help us fly the Namibian flag … the team has surely proved its worth by now.”

The official Namibia Ice & Inline Hockey season came to an end with the Coastal Pirates Tournament in August 2006.  However, many U18 and open team players have remained active as they have begun the challenging process of competing for a position on the 2007 Namibia National Team.

During 2006 NIIHA had close to 500 registered players, and a few more than 60 players in the U18/open teams are eligible to compete for a position on the 2007 National Team.  The Namibian player pool does not compare with nations like USA, Russia, Finland, and Sweden from the top division or the other European teams our squad will be lined up against in Division 1.

Still, our players have shown remarkable resilience and determination. They have put Namibia on the map amongst the international Inline Hockey fraternity. Ideally Namibia should nominate 18 players - 4 lines with 4 players each and 2 goalies - to represent Team Namibia.

With the excellent groundwork laid in 2005 and 2006 (by Philippe Boudreault as head coach and Roman Marx and Mario Troha as assistant coaches for 2005 and 2006, respectively) Mario Troha has taken up the position as coach for the 2007 trials.

A total of 23 players submitted their national team application for 2007. The first round selection was held in Windhoek on the Cazadores field during the last weekend of October and saw determined contenders start their grinding journey to Passau under Namibia’s scorching sun.

Seven more training camps are scheduled to prepare the players for a successful Inline Hockey World Championship which is to be held in Passau between 26^th May and 3^rd June 2007.

Photo: Archive 2006 

A determined player, Jörg Güther, on the way to the goal.