SA hockey faces ‘must win’ clash

AFTER the gut-wrenching disappointment of losing 2-0 to Great Britain in the quarterfinals of the World League semi-final tournament in Valencia, Spain, on Thursday, the South African women’s hockey team faces another testing encounter in the weekend’s first round of play-off matches.

The world’s 11th-ranked South Africa face world number 15 Spain at 2pm (SA time) today, with the winners earning the right to play for fifth place against world number 14 Ireland or world number five, the US, at 2pm tomorrow. The losers will play for seventh place at 11.30am tomorrow.

South Africa’s matches at Campo De Hockey De Valencia today and tomorrow will not be shown on SuperSport.

Spain also have to pick themselves up for the SA match after the crushing blow of quarter-final defeat at the hands of world number six Germany on Thursday night, this after they had led 1-0 until nine minutes from full-time time and also 2-0 in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.

Germany went on to win the shootout 3-2 after the scores were 1-1 in regulation time.

Both the SA and Spain coaching staff and players will be familiar with each other. South Africans Sanani Mangisa, Nicolene Terblanche, Jade Mayne and Sheldon Rostron have been in close encounters in the last five years, and today’s outcome is the same.

For South Africa, a fifthplace finish is a must. Should two of three semi-finalists in Valencia – Argentina (PanAmerican), Great Britain and Germany (both Europe) – win their upcoming continental championship, it would bring the fifth-placed team into the picture as a qualifier for Rio.

Both semi-finals will be televised live on SuperSport 8.

This weekend, SuperSport will be showing a number of live matches from the World League semi-final men’s and women’s tour naments in Antwerp, Belgium.