Namibia beat Argentina 4-0 on Saturday, to finish seventh overall in the senior men’s category at the Inline Hockey World Championships in Asunción, Paraguay, over the weekend.
Namibia dominated from the start, outshooting their opponents 25-7, to win in style.
Max Finkeldey, who scored one goal, was Namibia’s player of the match, while Alex Wirtz scored two goals and Wim van der Plas one.
Namibia started the tournament in a tough group A, but got off with a great 8-0 victory against Switzerland on 11 October.
Amandus Röttcher led the way with a hattrick, while Christiaan Coetzee, Sean Lichti, Vigo Bajorat, Alex Wirtz and Josua Zeferinu, who was Namibia’s player of the match, scored one goal each.
Namibia, however, were brought down to earth by the top ranked United States who beat them 5-1 in their next group match.
The US were already 2-0 up after only three minutes and although Amandus Röttcher got a goal back for Namibia, the US pulled away to seal a comfortable 5-1 win.
The next day Namibia once again conceded two early goals against Slovakia, before Van der Plas opened Namibia’s account.
Slovakia, however, went 4-1 ahead and although Namibia replied with two more goals by Van der Plas and Finkeldey, it wasn’t enough as Slovakia held on for a 4-3 victory.
Namibia gave a great performance in their final group match on 13 October to beat France 4-3.
Namibia led 2-1 at half-time after goals by Finkeldey and Zeferinu, but France came back to take a 3-2 lead, before two late goals by Lichti and JW Coetzee gave Namibia a thrilling win.
On 14 October, Namibia took on Chinese Taipei in their first knockout match and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners after a brace by Christiaan Coetzee and another goal by Finkeldey.
That put them through to the quarterfinals where they took on the world’s second ranked team, Czechia, and despite a great effort, Namibia suffered a 4-3 shootout defeat.
Czechia took a 3-1 lead with Van der Plas opening Namibia’s scoring, but with five minutes remaining, goals by Röttcher and JW Coetzee put Namibia level at 3-3 to send the match into extra time.
Here Namibia dominated but couldn’t get past Czechia’s goalkeeper, to send the match into a penalty shootout where Czechia prevailed to win the match 4-3.
On 16 October Namibia lost 9-5 to Russia in a second placement game, with Röttcher scoring two goals, and Coetzee, Van der Plas and Liechti one goal each.
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