SA’s Ronaldo Ongi Mali promises magic in England
Coach wild about Ongi Mali, 19, as team head for London
● Ongi Mali, described by the national coach as “a little bit of a Ronaldo”, is eager to score her first international goal at the upcoming women’s hockey World Cup.
At 19 she is the youngest member of the South African squad that arrives in London today ahead of the showpiece that kicks off in the English capital on Saturday with SA facing Germany.
Mali, after a baptism of fire with six matches at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in April, is starting to find her feet as a striker at an international level.
Playing within her age groups she was a flashy player who could dribble the ball from the halfway line to score, but she discovered it’s not as easy at senior level.
“I would go for the ball and try to score, it’s a different mind game [now],” Mali told the Sunday Times at a farewell function before the team left the country.
“It’s really quite difficult coming to international from under-18 last year. It’s quite difficult,” added the player from Zwide in Port Elizabeth who has a scholarship to study microbiology at the James Madison
She’s got quite unique touches, small little elimination skills which are really wow. I would probably say a little bit of a Ronaldo Sheldon Rostron
Hockey national team coach
University in Virginia from August.
The institution has already agreed to give her time off for international matches.
“I’m learning some new stuff, to eliminate, how to draw players and create space.”
Mali, picked for the under-21 South African side when she was just 17, has been catching the eye of national coach Sheldon Rostron for some time now, and he believes she’s gaining confidence quickly after the Australian competition where SA underperformed by finishing sixth.
“She’s a little bit of a magician in terms of being able to make things happen inside of the circle.
“We’ve been watching her since she was small. She’s always had the ability to score and ability to create and I think those are the key aspects and traits that we see and value and something that we need within the team.
“She’s got a very good hockey brain and the players are starting to realise the value that she can add.”
At a recent practice session she had her teammates at sixes and sevens.
“The defenders in training the other day were laughing because she just kept catching them. I don’t know how she does it, to be honest. You have no cooking clue that it’s coming.
“She’s got unbelievable hands, from a technical point of view a little bit like soccer, she can pull you one way and flip the ball through your legs like you can’t believe.
“She’s got quite unique touches, small little elimination skills which are really wow.
“I would probably say a little bit of a Ronaldo . . . I think she’s going to make some magic for us.”
Rostron is under no illusions about the immense task facing his team which, at 14th in the world, are the lowest-ranked of the four teams in Pool C.
Germany are sixth, Argentina, the bronze medallists last time in 2014, are third, and Spain are 11th.
“We are aiming to finish third in our group. That would ensure we advance to the playoffs.”
The team was in high spirits at the farewell dinner which also marked the late signing of their sponsor, logistics company Super Group.
Without that cash injection the players would have had to dig into their own pockets to get to the World Cup.
During the send-off, the MC recounted a Freudian slip by one of the players, who will not be named.
She was a guest speaker at a hockey awards evening at a Johannesburg boys school, and instead of saying, “If you work hard, success will be achieved”, she uttered, “If you work, sex . . .”.
That’s the kind of faux pas the normally loud Mali likes to use to tease her teammates, but she’s been pretty quiet since her arrival in the squad. “I’m very vocal, but I’m still a youngster so I don’t want to be as vocal.
“It’s been difficult here, because I don’t want to be this little [upstart] so I’m gradually becoming vocal and it’s coming right.
“I’m turning up the volume.”