Cormack frustrated by wasted chances

Namibia’s women’s hockey coach Shayne Cormack was left frustrated after Namibia’s 1-1 draw against Croatia in their second test in Zelina on Tuesday evening. 

The result saw Namibia take an unbeatable 1-0 lead in their three-test series after they won the first test 4-0, but Namibia wasted numerous scoring opportunities in the second test, to the exasperation of Cormack. 

“We had a lot of chances that we are just not finishing, and that’s a little unsettling for me, because there’s a lot of chances that we’re not putting away. We had three short corners, but we only scored one and we also didnt put a penalty flick away, so that  does tell the story at the end of the day. We’re going to have to really look at that, because we need the outcomes in the circle if we want to win games at the World Cup,” she said. 

“I thought tonight Croatia came out running much harder at us. We thought we’d go hard at them in the beginning, but we were caught on the backfoot to start so I think it unsettled us a bit,” she added. 

Cormack said she was not surprised by Croiatia’s improved performance.

“I wasn’t surprised – they are obviously also gearing up for the World Cup, so I thought they would have analyzed and I think they just really ran hard. They didn’t worry about holding back like yesterday when they held back a little bit more. They just came at us tonight and I think we’ve just got to play the ball better under pressure, we’ve got to make better connections. We’ve got good patterns, but we’re just not making connections like I want them to, so hopefully we can improve on that,” she said.

“In the third test I’ll probably look at how I want to play in our first match against Australia, so we’ll try some lines there and try and make some different changes. I’m not under pressure for the result, so I’m really going to try a few things to settle us a bit in the game and get better connections up front,” she added. 

Namibian goalkeeper Petro Stoffberg said the match provided good practise. 

“Croatia came out with a bang. They played much better tonight than they played yesterday night, which I always appreciate, because that gives us better preparation for the World Cup. You always want to play a stronger opponent, so I think they gave us a good run,” she said. 

“They had a lot more chances today, so they tested our defence and also our offence because we had a lot of circle entries and a lot of shots on goal – unfortunately we didn’t round it off, but at least we could practice,” she added.  

With the Indoor Hockey World Cup now just a few days away, Stoffberg could not hide her excitement. 

“I am unbelievably excited. I’m so grateful to our government for giving us our money – without them, we wouldn’t be here. So obviously, playing for my country, who can’t be excited?”