Asia: Zimbabwe get their first win of the Junior Women’s World Cup while India set up a 9th place clash against the United States

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The second day of classification matches at the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup 2023 in Chile was a tough one to digest for the hosts as they lost badly to the United States. While Zimbabwe earned their first victory of the tournament via a shootout, South Africa and India went on to the next round of classification matches with a win in their respective games today.

Zimbabwe vs Canada [Full-Time Score: 1-1 (Shootout Score: 4-3)]

Tanatswa Mutaramuswa’s heroics in the shootout helped Zimbabwe get their first win of the competition as they edged out Canada in a thrilling shootout. Although Canadian skipper Allison Kuzyk scored the opening goal in the 10th minute, Zimbabwe made a late and strong comeback through Elijah’s penalty stroke conversion in the 52nd minute.

The game went into the shootouts and it was then on both the custodians to showcase their talent. The game was also tied in the first five shootouts and went on to the sudden deaths in which Zimbabwe emerged victorious.

“I had in my mind that that we had to do it anyway. My team is incredibly happy that we won the first match of the tournament. It was a tough game but we played according to what the coach had planned and we succeeded.

South Africa vs New Zealand (Full-Time Score: 3-1)

New Zealand was always the side that attacked more but was denied conversions by the Protea defense. They got five penalty corners but were only able to convert one.

South African women, who had a decent outing in the pool stage matches, were dominant and focused more on scoring field goals instead of creating penalty corners. Paris-Gail Isaacs (21’), Reabetswe Phume (34’), and Ane Janse (52’) netted the goals for the Protea team. They will next face Zimbabwe for the 13th–14th place classification match.

Player of the Match Paris-Gail Isaacs said, “We had played well in the group stages as well but the result hadn’t gone in our favor. We will try to finish on a high in our last match on Saturday.”

Korea vs India (Full-Time Score: 1-3)

India staged a spirited comeback as they won 1-3 after being down by a goal in the first 20 minutes. Jiyun Choi scored off a penalty corner in the 19th minute while India’s prolific goal scorer Ropni Kumari got India back into the game with a thunderous strike to the right of the goalkeeper in the 23rd minute.

The second half was completely dominated by India as they scored two more goals. Mumtaz Khan (44’) and Annu (46’) scored the two goals for the women in blue to complete an easy win.

“We played with good coordination today and were confident in all the balls that we were playing. The passes were precise and the conversion was also on top”, said the Player of the Match Mumtaz Khan.

Chile vs USA (Full-Time Score: 1-5)

It wasn’t a great day for the hosts in front of their home crowd as they failed to capitalize against a strong US side who had unluckily missed out of the quarterfinals.

Chile was never in the game until Constanza Munoz scored off a penalty stroke in the 59th minute. The United States goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz put up a great show as she denied all five penalty corners that Chile got.

Jans Croon, who scored a brace for the United States was awarded the Player of the Match award. She said, “Scoring three goals in the first quarter was the key to our success and also our corner conversion was on point as we scored from both the penalty corners that we got.”

To see the schedule of the upcoming matches, click here.

FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup Chile 2023 – 07 December 2023

Centro Deportivo de Hockey Césped, Estadio Nacional

Result: 13th–16th place Classification Match

Zimbabwe 1-1 Canada (Shootout Score: 4-3)

Player of the Match: Tanatswa Mutaramuswa (ZIM)

Umpires: Junko Wagatsuma (JPN) and Jianjun Chen (JPN)

Result: 13th–16th place Classification Match

South Africa 3-1 New Zealand

Player of the Match: Paris-Gail Isaacs (RSA)

Umpires: Veronica Villafane (ARG) and Kamile Mockaityte (LTU)

Result: 9th–12th place Classification Match