{"id":5665,"date":"2026-07-20T12:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=5665"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:08:08","slug":"south-africa-open-namibia-series-with-convincing-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/south-africa-open-namibia-series-with-convincing-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Open Namibia Series with Convincing Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The South African Women began their final preparations ahead of the FIH Hockey World Cup with victory in the opening Test against Namibia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: ACK Sports Photography<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa will face England, China and India at the World Cup, with the four-match series against Namibia offering the team an important opportunity to fine-tune their combinations and finalise their squad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The match also marked a special milestone for Ntsopa Mokoena, who earned her 50th international cap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa started brightly but initially struggled to turn their possession into clear goal-scoring opportunities. They eventually found the breakthrough through Kayla de Waal, who turned sharply before firing a low strike past Petro <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Stoffberg<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> at the near post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The hosts doubled their advantage from a penalty corner in the second quarter. Hannah Pearce stepped forward and powered a drag flick beyond <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Stoffberg<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> for her sixth international goal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Namibia improved as the quarter progressed, disrupting South Africa\u2019s rhythm and limiting the number of clear chances created by the home side. South Africa nevertheless carried a two-goal advantage into the half-time break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Pearce added her second of the match in the third quarter, finding space during the second phase of a penalty corner and guiding the ball into the far corner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Mokoena then capped her milestone appearance with her 12th international goal, finishing off an excellent piece of work from <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Thati<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> Zulu down the right-hand side. Mokoena was later named Player of the Match.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa continued to create a number of dangerous circle entries but will feel that greater consistency and quality in front of goal will be required as the series progresses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">It was nevertheless a positive opening victory for South Africa, who maintained their unbeaten international record against Namibia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The second Test of the series takes place on Tuesday at 17:00 at Elkanah House High School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Women began their final preparations ahead of the FIH Hockey World Cup with victory in the opening Test against Namibia. Photo: ACK <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/south-africa-open-namibia-series-with-convincing-victory\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5665"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5669,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions\/5669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}