The Spar South African women’s hockey team came back from losing 3-2 to Spain on Wednesday to beat Spain 2-1 in Barcelona on Friday. South Africa led 2-0 at the break. The goals were scored by Johke Koornhof and Pietie Coetzee.
”We have been going through a bit of a slump,” she said, ”and today, for the first time since our last match in China [in May] I felt that every member of the team contributed, and they played as a team.”
Howell said she felt the South Africans outplayed the Spanish team.
”It was the same in the first match on Wednesday,” she said. ”We just had difficulty getting the ball into the back of the goal!”
”It’s very hot in Barcelona at the moment, and we played the match at 10am, at our request, because we know it is going to be hot and sticky in Athens next month,” she said. ”We have been training very intensively — we had two training sessions yesterday [Thursday] and then played a Test match this morning, so I am very pleased with the way the team performed.
”I believe we really are where we want to be. And although we lost Fiona Butler with a broken finger, we are also working through the injuries, and everyone seems to be fit now. Fiona will also be back soon — she’s only expected to be out of action for three weeks,” said Howell.
She said the four-Test tour of The Netherlands and Spain has been very important for the team’s preparations for the Olympic Games.
”While we were in Holland, we played them twice — we drew the first match five-all, and lost the second 2-1. But we were really competitive against a team regarded as one of the favourites for Olympic Gold.
”We also saw some of the action in the four-nations tournament involving The Netherlands, Germany, Korea and China, and that was also very valuable. Our first match in Athens will be against Holland, and our fourth against Germany. They have a very similar style, and it was very useful to be able to watch them in action.”
The team arrive back in South Africa this weekend, and will meet in Pretoria at the High Performance Centre next week for another training camp. — Sapa