daniel chigunwe
Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL Under-21 coach Tendayi Maredza says they face a tough task when they take on Netherlands this afternoon in their last match in Pool A, at the ongoing FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
They claimed their first ever victory at the Junior World Cup last Friday when they beat Canada 2-1.
They then lost to the United Sates 5-0 in their second game on Saturday and had a rest day yesterday.
They are back in action this afternoon when they face the Netherlands, who are top in the Pool with six points.
“Netherlands is going to be a tough game. Obviously they came into this tournament as favourites, they are a tough side, tough opponent, so we are going to give it our all.
“We are just going to try and make sure that we don’t lose the ball a lot, which was our downfall in the last game.
“But we are going to give it our best and see how it goes . . . It’s going to be a tough game.
“Obviously if we do play well you never know but we are going to see how it goes tomorrow (today).
“If we fail to make the top two we will see what happens between the United States and Canada game and see what position we finish in the pool,” said Maredza.
Maredza said taking into account their performance at their last appearance at the tournament in 2016, there have been some improvements so far.
“The team performance has been good. Obviously we came into this tournament as underdogs.
“In the last tournament we were ranked 16th and we actually got off to a flier winning our first game at the Junior World Cup. So our performance has been good.
“Yesterday (Saturday) we had a tough game against USA but that’s a top team, they played well and we tried our best but we just came out second best,” said Maredza.
The Netherlands are the leaders in Pool A with six points.
They are followed by the United States with three points, same as Zimbabwe, but they have a superior goal difference.
Online Reporter