Namibia indoor hockey men provided the highlight of the inaugural Kathea Energy Nkosi Cup in Wynberg when they historically defeated South Africa before securing a final spot with a second victory over USA. They will be joined in the final by South Africa despite their loss, while the SPAR South Africa Indoor Women have also secured their final spot with a last-minute win against Ireland.
MEN – NAMIBIA 5-2 SOUTH AFRICA
A grandstand game greeted us on the third day of the Kathea Energy Nkosi Cup in Wynberg. In their opening meeting the South Africans had to sneak a victory in the final quarter but were hopeful of a better turnout this time around.
Namibia struck first from a penalty corner in the 7th minute, Fagan Hansen on the slip and lifting it home! The same man popped up early in the second quarter with a second penalty corner before Ernest Jacobs made it a hat-trick of penalty corners just at the end of first half.
Hansen completed his hat-trick finishing superbly at the back post after a wonderful ball from his brother. South Africa started to fight back in the final quarter and would have awakened some nerves in the Namibians when Dayaan Cassiem scored early in the fourth quarter. But this time the Namibians handled the fight and stretched their lead back to four through Owen Hatton.
The hosts would get a late consolation goal through Mustapha Cassiem, keeping a remarkable scoring run going, but it was joy for Namibia who secured a first win against the hosts in South Africa.
Kathea Energy MVP – Ernest Jacobs (Namibia)
WOMEN – IRELAND 3-4 SOUTH AFRICA
A victory for SPAR South Africa would secure a spot in Tuesdays final with a game to spare, but they knew they would face another tough battle against the Irish. The South Africans found themselves facing an uphill battle when Sarah Patton scored first for the Europeans with a good penalty corner variation.
Edith Molikoe would restore parity before the end of the first quarter with an individual and direct run from her own half and it was just the start of the Edith show. Her second in the 16th minute was a demonstration of experience firing in the inside after a superb touch on from Tegan Fourie. Her hat-trick goal came before half-time from another Tegan Fourie assist, this time at a penalty corner. 3-1 at the half-time break.
Ireland came roaring back in the third quarter Chloe Brown pulled one back in the opening minute of the half with a brilliant penalty corner and the scores were levelled when Milla Fulton got her first international goal finishing coolly.
The game was destined for the first draw of the Nkosi Cup when Molikoe stole the headlines once more with a brilliant, faked move to go around the keeper and seal a tremendous victory for the hosts
Kathea Energy MVP – Edith Molikoe (South Africa)
MEN – NAMIBIA 6-2 UNITED STATES
The Namibian men had a spring in their step knowing anything other than defeat would secure a final place in Brynn Cleak’s 50th test match for the country. The Southern Africans carried on where they left off in the morning session with an incredible opening blitz seeing Liam Hermanus net twice and Ernest Jacobs make it 3-0 in just the 7th minute.
Aki Kaeppeler would have two penalty corners in the opening quarter and would score both to bring it back to 3-2, but that was the last statement of significance for the Americans as they saw their hopes of making the final disappear.
Percy Bartham had the easiest finish after a superb diving pass from Liam Hermanus and it was 4-2. In the third quarter Nico Neethling was absolutely pumped as he merged around the right into space and finished emphatically, his celebration wasn’t far off itself.
The iconic moment of the game though came in the final quarter when long serving Namibian legend Brynn Cleak scored on his milestone cap, taking advantage of the keeper being pulled to fire home and seal a 6-2 win for Namibians.
Kathea Energy MVP – Liam Hermanus (Namibia)
by South Africa
