The Black Sticks, both male and female national hockey teams of Ghana performed wonderfully at the Hockey World League Round One Tournament ongoing the Theodosia Okoe National Hockey Pitch in Accra between four countries in Africa from Friday September 9 to 11.
They have thus qualified for the next round in Valencia, Spain for the female and Bangladesh for the
males. Rachel Bamfo who plays for Fire Service scored for Ghana against Kenya in the final female game. The competition for qualification was between teams from Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Ghana the host nation.
The event kicked off with Ghana beating Namibia 2-0 to bring excitement into the tournament which attracted a sizeable crowd, including the Die Hard Sports Supporters group.
Nigeria lost 3-1 to Kenya in the second women’s game. Ghana’s male team thrashed Namibia in an exciting game, they then went on to defeat Kenya 1-0 in a tight game the following day. The Black Sticks seemed to be highly inspired for hosting, but they were complacent as they could have scored more against Kenya. Captain Salia Nsalbini scored on the tenth minute to seal victory for Ghana. He also proved to be a good midfield marshall.
Namibia coach Trevor Cormack said they were outclassed by Ghana. “We had opportunities early in the game to go ahead but did not take advantage of them. As expected our lack of fitness and skeleton substitutes’ bench caught up with us and for the majority of the game we were outclassed by a very well prepared and super fit Ghanaian outfit,” he said.
Namibia suffered a comprehensive 7-1 defeat against Ghana in their opening match at the World Hockey League tournament. Ghana led 3-0 at halftime and then regularly found the net as they streaked into a 7-0 lead before Ernest Jacobs got a late consolation goal for Namibia.
Namibia managed to keep Ghana at bay until the 18th minute when a field goal by Emmanuel Ankomah put the hosts ahead. Two goals in two minutes by Shadrack Baah and Michael Baiden gave Ghana a 3-0 lead at the break.
Ghana’s dominance continued after the break and goals by Johnny Botsio and Richard Adjei put them 5-0 up early in the second half. The Black Sticks struck two goals in two minutes by Isaac Cofie and a second by Michael Baiden to put them 7-0 up with 15 minutes to go.
Namibia finally managed to open their account when they were awarded a penalty with five minutes to go and Ernest Jacobs scored from the spot to make the final score 7-1.
Ghana dominated all aspects of the match according to the official match stats. They had 36 shots on goal compared to Namibia’s two, and seven penalty corners to Namibia’s zero. They also penetrated Namibia’s circle 42 times compared to only five circle penetrations by Namibia.
Ghana’s female team on the other hand, beat Nigeria 2-0 and pipped Kenya 1-0 to qualify.
In other results Kenya beat Nigeria 4-3 in the female division and 3-1 in the men category.
The event in Ghana was sponsored by Vodafone, Accra Brewery Ltd and other companies.
Credit: Sammy Heywood Okine
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