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Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
THE Under-21 women’s field hockey team put up a good fight yesterday to beat hosts Egypt 4-0 at the Junior Africa Cup in Ismailia.
Zimbabwe were coming from a 3-0 defeat at the hands of South Africa on Sunday.
Zimbabwe’s goals came from Chelsey-Lee Hares, Athina Mujiba, Tinodiwanashe Elijah and Tanyaradzwa Changa.
Zimbabwe quickly settled into yesterday’s game, getting their first goal from Hares just a minute into the game.
They piled pressure on their opponents knowing only a victory would keep them in the run for a top two finish as Mujiba doubled the score in the 29th minute.
Elijah and Changa then weighed in with a goal each to make it a convincing 4-0 victory.
Coach Brad Heuer was pleased his side managed to deliver the needed results.
“It was very important for us, especially to bounce back from that tough loss against South Africa yesterday (Sunday).
“So the girls had to turn it around and make a plan and they had to recover from that loss and come back a completely different team, try put all our mistakes behind us and the girls managed to do that.
“They fought hard. It was the plan straight from the beginning to put a lot of pressure on Egypt pretty much like how the South Africans put pressure on us.
“And we managed to get a goal in the first three minutes and we pretty much dominated the game from there.”
Heuer, however, noted that they need to work on capitalising the chances that come their way after missing several chances yesterday.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities, which is something that we will try and fix going into the next game.
“But I am very proud of the girls to come back after that loss and play like the way they did today. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from them.
“And obviously we need now to beat Kenya on Wednesday. So we have to beat them to book our ticket into the final of the Junior Africa Cup but also into the (Junior) World Cup in Chile later on this year,” said Heuer.
South Africa got their second win when beating Kenya 5-0 in the other match and they lead on the points’ table with six points.
Zimbabwe and Egypt share the same number of points, having won one game each but the former are placed second on superior goal difference.
Zimbabwe will be out for a win tomorrow against Kenya and will be hoping for a bigger margin to ensure they finish on second place as Egypt takes on South Africa in the other match and still have a chance as well to turn the tables in their favour.
The Zimbabwe men’s team were set to face Kenya late yesterday. They lost the first match to South Africa 6-0 on Sunday. The teams get a rest today and resume games tomorrow.
Online Reporter