admin
Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Under-21 women’s field hockey team coach Brad Heuer has underscored the importance of game-time in their build-up for the FIH Hockey Junior World Cup.
The Junior World Cup is due to take place in December.
The women’s event will be staged in Santiago, Chile, and the men’s event is set for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Zimbabwe qualified in the women’s category when finishing second behind South Africa at the Junior Africa Cup in Ismailia, Egypt, last week.
The tournament attracted four countries — Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and hosts Egypt. They all fielded teams in both the men’s and women’s categories.
“Now in terms of preparing for the World Cup, we have got six, seven months. We have to see what funds are available to us.
“But I really have some plans in mind. I have a lot of contacts in Europe that I am hoping to use to either go there or get some people to come here just to help out in all areas. Whether it’s on the mental side, or even on the tactical side or anything like that. But most importantly to try and play some games.
“So hopefully if we could get to Europe that would be the best. I could organise some games there against club sides or university sides or anything. But I understand that’s a lot of money that’s why I said we need to know how much money we have available to us,” said Heuer.
Heuer is also looking at South Africa and Namibia for possible friendly matches.
South Africa are one of the most active countries on the continent and their efforts are paying dividends with both their junior men and women’s teams qualifying for the Junior World Cup.
They won gold in both categories at the just-ended Junior Africa Cup.
“It’s just so important that they play hockey that they play matches and that they play these internationals because it was another thing that we struggled with, to get into the game.
“A lot of the girls hadn’t ever played an international before. So it was really difficult for them to get into the game especially the first game.
“So we just need to keep playing internationals, and especially against stronger sides like South Africa because they will help us deal with that high pressure, the high press and all the pressure that they put on us,” said Heuer.
He is set to meet with the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe to map the way forward.
This is the fourth time the junior women’s team has qualified for the Junior World Cup.
They had a good show at the Junior Africa Cup last week, only losing to South Africa. They lost the group stage match 3-0 and the final 1-0 but had already secured their spot at the global tournament.
They beat Kenya and Egypt in the other two group matches to qualify for the final.
Heuer was impressed with the improvement from his charges in each of the games during the tournament and believes they can build on that going forward.
“In terms of the team’s performance, I was very impressed with them, especially the last game, they fought really hard.
“Of course, there is always room for improvement. In both South Africa games, we really struggled with keeping possession. So I think that’s something that we really need to work on.
“The lessons from the tournament, there were quite a few on the field and off the field. But I think our biggest thing is just playing as a team. It’s so important that everyone is together, everyone is on the same level and they work together as a team.
“That’s definitely something that we need to keep working on and the mental side of things as well. We are quite mentally weak as a sporting nation in my opinion. So I think definitely I will be trying my hardest to get that mental side of things to speed up,” said Heuer.
South Africa will be joined by Egypt at the Junior World Cup in the men’s section.
Online Reporter