South Africa eliminated from Hockey World Cup

South Africa were knocked out of the FIH Hockey World Cup after suffering a 5-1 defeat to Belgium on Saturday afternoon.

The odds were stacked massively against the South African men as they took on world No 3 Belgium in a backs-against-the-wall battle to try and secure progress to the cross-overs.

Having never beaten Belgium in a competitive match, South Africa could not have asked for a better start when Rhett Halkett set up Nic Spooner after just 35 seconds and their most impressive player fired home an early advantage.

Unfortunately for South Africa, Alexander Hendrickx is the in-form penalty corner specialist for Belgium and his two goals from penalty corners in the first half were sandwiched a neatly taken field goal by Player of the Match Simon Gougnard.

A fourth goal was added when Loick Luypaert also showed his prowess from the top of the circle.

The half-time stats spoke for themselves – while possession was nearly equal between the teams, the significant figures for Belgium were three penalty corners and three goals.

South Africa themselves produced two outstanding opportunities where Julian Hykes and Dayaan Cassiem both failed to capitalise on the space they were afforded and pull the game closer to a contest.

Belgium continued to seek chances as they looked to up their goal difference to try and take top spot in the pool. They were denied this by a combination of things – Gowan Jones was impressive in goal, South Africa defended better and Belgium were wasteful of their opportunities.

The final score of 5-1 coupled with India’s 5-1 victory against Canada meant that the host team took top spot and advanced to the quarter-finals. Canada joined Belgium in the cross-overs simply by having a better goal difference than South Africa.

For South Africa, there will be a short amount of time before they return to India for the Hockey Series Finals in July 2019, an Olympic Qualifying tournament.

FIH Hockey World Cup 2018 – Group C – 8 December Results

South Africa 1-5 Belgium
India 5-1 Canada

Group C Final Standings (goal difference in brackets)