The South African men’s hockey team did what the women’s team still have to achieve by scoring their first points of the Beijing Olympic tournament in Sunday night’s match against Pakistan.
As in their three previous matches, South Africa conceded a goal early in the match when Muhammad Imran put one past Christopher Hibbert in the fourth minute. With five minutes remaining of the first half, Austin Smith levelled the score from a penalty corner, giving South African hockey their first points of the Games.
”It was a big lift for us,” said keeper Hibbert. ”It’s been a bear on our back. Now it’s off and we can be more relaxed against Canada.”
The score remained drawn until the turnaround, but Shakeel Abbasi struck again in the 44th minute to put Pakistan back into the lead. In the 60th minute a Pakistan attack led to a lengthy debate with umpire Anajit Singh, who awarded Pakistan a penalty shot that Muhammad Saqlain put past Hibbert into the top left corner to seal the game at 1-3.
”At least it gets us off the mark. They outrank us and they have some quick forwards. If you make one mistake, they turn it over very quickly and are very dangerous,” said Thornton McDade. ”We have had a confidence knock in the attacking 25. We’ve been doing so much defending, it seems the guys are more concerned about turning it over than making it count when in the area.”
It was always going to be a hard match given Pakistan’s seventh-placed ranking and the demoralising hammering the South Africans have taken this week.
”They’ve always been one of the top countries and have won this tournament three times; Canada is our last match and they’re ranked 12th above us — we should account for them,” said the ever-upbeat Emile Smith, ”When we click we can give many countries a hard match.”
The South Africans had more than their share of possession but were unable to convert it into scoring, whereas their opponents always looked dangerous when on the ball.
”Out of four games we have probably played two-and-a-half games of good hockey and we’ve scored one goal — the good teams are 20% to 25% shots on target, which makes the difference,” said coach Gregg Clark.
The team play their final pool match on Tuesday. — Sapa