After the game against Australia, team Namibia officials had it all figured:  we would have to play against South Africa again. Then both Japan and Great Britain unexpectedly lost their qualification games on Thursday afternoon, dropping both teams into the “losers” bracket. This moved team Namibia from first loser to third loser; immediately bringing Team Namibia into elimination range by the next round. If both Japan and Great Britain had won against New Zealand and Hungary, Namibia would have been first loser... but we were not.
So today’s game was against Japan, whom we had lost against (6:3) in our opening game during this World Championships on Sunday. Today though, was a different game. Japan had  won 2 games in the initial qualifications, giving them second place in our group.  However, because of their loss to New Zealand yesterday, they were suddenly facing the prospect of elimination, as they lost during the qualification play-offs.
Namibian players were determined to give their best. The line with Oliver Lohmeier in centre, Riyaan Ely and Michael Ellinger as wings, Basti Faber in back and René Werner guarding our goal started off the game punctually at 14h00 local time. Change-up of lines went fluently until 1:39 into the game Japan scored the first goal. Just over a minute later, Vincent van Biljon hit a slap-shot that brought the equalizer. Penalties against the Namibian team allowed Japan to move ahead 3:1 with two unanswered goals.  Namibia retaliated with its second goal eight minutes into the game when a pass from Oliver Lohmeier to Riyaan Ely brought us back within range of a tie. Another penalty against team Namibia and Japan increased their lead to 4:2 at the end of the first quarter.
Erik Rodenwoldt took over the goal for Namibia with the start of the second quarter. Both teams managed to add one goal to the score board during the second quarter, bringing it to 5:3 at half-time. Our goal was scored by Jörg Güther, who was assisted by Daniel Asmus.
Determined teams came back from the break and it was team Namibia’s Oliver Lohmeier who managed to make the first goal, only to have Japan respond with two goals in rapid succession.  Japan’s 6th goal was made at the 27:24 mark, twelve seconds after Lohmeier’s goal, while Japan’s seventh and final goal was made 24 seconds later.
Namibia placed team Japan under intense pressure throughout the remainder of the game, with Namibia scoring two more goals.  Basti Farber scored unassisted, while Vincent van Biljon scored our last goal, following assisting passes from Marco Debortoli and Arne Rodenwoldt.  However, Namibia did not succeed in making a desperately needed tying goal, with the game’s final tally being 7:6 in favour of Japan.
Following the game, presentations were made to the round’s best players of the game for both teams. Erik Rodenwoldt was declared player of the game for team Namibia and Tadamura Shuhei, for the winning team Japan.
This loss ended Namibia’s participation in the 2007 IIHF World Championships and also relegated Team Namibia to 15th place, meaning that Namibia will not qualify for next year’s IIHF World Championships.  As a result, it will be at least 2009 before Team Namibia can qualify to participate again in this prestigious international inline hockey event.  Though this was a difficult loss for the team, Namibia played hard and fought back repeatedly.  Namibia was competitive in all of its Championship matches, which is impressive given that these games were held against a range of countries where inline hockey is a popular national sport.  While the team will return disappointed with their placement, they can take pride in the hard-fought contests they provided throughout the tournament.
Final score: Japan 7: Namibia 6.

Basti Faber waiting for a pass from the back - Oliver Lohmeier ready in the slot of the Japanese goal.