Team South Africa’s men hockey players continued their energy-sapping programme by playing their third match in four days at the 2024 Paris Olympics and this time they again came up against some of the biggest-hitters on the international stage. And again they earned the respect of both the opponents and the crowd at the Yves-di-Manoir stadium.
On Saturday they’d not been disgraced in losing 5-3 to world No1’s Netherlands. On Sunday they held Great Britain (England are world No2’s) to 1 2-2 draw and on Tuesday they went down 5-1 to sixth-ranked Germany.
Team SA had previously played Germany, at Tokyo 2020, and had achieved a remarkable victory. This time, they aimed to deliver another memorable performance as a birthday present for head coach Cheslin Gie.
However, Germany grabbed an early lead. In the final minute of the first quarter, Germany was awarded a penalty stroke, which Christopher Ruhr converted to double the lead.
Justus Weigand made it 3-0 for Germany when he found himself open in the circle and finished past Gowan Jones. South Africa had a good chance, but the shot went just wide. The second period was cagey, with few moments of quality, and Germany maintained their 3-0 lead at half-time.
Early in the second half, Jones made several saves before a counterattack from South Africa almost resulted in a goal, drawing massive appreciation from the crowd. South Africa then won a penalty corner, which Matt Guise-Brown converted to make it 3-1. However, Germany reestablished their three-goal lead when Gonzalo Peillat scored from a penalty corner.
South Africa won another penalty corner after good work from Bili Ntuli, but Mustapha Cassiem’s shot was saved, and his rebound effort went over the crossbar. With three minutes of the match remaining, an error in South Africa’s defence allowed the ball to land on Mats Grambusch’s stick. The German captain fired brilliantly into the top right corner, making it 5-1.
Despite the defeat, South Africa’s focus now shifts to their next game against Spain on Wednesday, where they will battle for potential quarter-final places.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted,” said coach Gie. “We played within ourselves at stages, which is quite frustrating. Germany was very efficient and punished all our errors. We are still looking forward to the games against Spain and France, knowing that two victories will put us in the quarter-finals.”
Photo: ANTON GEYSER/Team SA