JAYSON KARAN
ZIMBABWE Under-21 Women’s Field Hockey team started their Junior Africa Cup campaign on a bad tone as they went down three to nothing against neighbor South Africa in Ismailia, Egypt on Sunday.
This was the opening match of the Under-21 Junior Africa Cup.
Zimbabwe being a country that plays less international matches than their neighbors South Africa, went to this encounter as underdogs.
South Africa took the lead in the first quarter of the match. They were two to nothing by half time and finally sealed the deal during the third quarter.
Tomlyn Kock, Mikkela Le Roux and Ntsopa Mokoena were the scorers of South Africa.
The Zimbabwean ladies woke up in the last quarter of the game as they restricted their opponents from scoring and they also threatened to score but the damage had already done.
“I think the girls lacked a lot of confidence during our first match of the campaign and South Africa punished us for that,” said Brad Heuer, Zimbabwe Women’s Coach.
“They improved in the last quarter of the game. The passion they had in the last quarter was incredible. They came harder and faster and looked like a much better team,” added the coach.
“We conceded all three goals from our mistakes. The mistakes were made because the girls were not composed enough and South Africa took advantage of that and took their chances,” said Heuer.
“We are now moving on, and we are going to solve all the problems we have in our first match and we need to make less errors in crucial areas,” added Brad Heuer.
In other match in the women’s section, the hosts Egypt beat Kenya two to nothing. South Africa are currently leading the standing on goal difference.
In men’s section, Zimbabwe suffered a massive defeat against South Africa in their first campaign of the tournament.
Zimbabwe went down to their Southern African neighbors, South Africa by six goals to nothing
Egypt beat Kenya by a goal to nothing a result that leave them lying second on the table behind South Africa.
Zimbabwe men’s will take on Kenya in their second match while the ladies will go against Egypt.