2010/02/25

THE South African boys’ hopes of earning a hockey ticket to the Olympic Youth Games in Singapore were dealt a crushing blow yesterday when they lost 2-1 to Egypt at Kat Leisure Park in East London yesterday.

The result, coupled with Ghana’s 11-0 demolition of Zimbabwe, means that victory by Ghana over Egypt today will see SA needing to score big against Kenya to qualify for Saturday’s final.

The South Africans started slowly and against the fleet-footed Egyptians they looked a shadow of the team that had won three games on the trot in earlier matches. With diminutive striker Reda Ahmed causing the SA defence all sorts of problems, it was the Egyptians who almost drew first blood when Atef Mohamad’s powerful shot met with an equally brilliant save from SA goalkeeper Hendrik Kroukamp.

Egypt’s dominance led to the first goal coming in the 15th minute via a short corner. After seeing Ahmed Nabil’s effort well-saved by Kroukamp, captain Mohamad Ragab found himself perfectly positioned to fire the ball home.

Buoyed on by a large home crowd, the hosts began to lift their game as they went in search of the equaliser. But the visitors held firm with goalkeeper Wael Nour Elding outstanding. To their credit, the hosts refused to lie down and good work down the right by Ross Gonsalves resulted in consecutive short corners but the powerfully built Grant Glutz continually failed to find a way past Nour Elding.

Not satisfied with their single goal advantage, the Pharaohs continued to attack in waves and were unfortunate to go into the break only one goal to the good. The break seemed to galvanise the hosts as they showed a positive sense of purpose from the onset of the second half. It came as no surprise when Ignatius Malgraff found the equaliser from a short corner.

From then on it was almost one-way traffic as SA went in search of the winner. But a combination of poor finishing and superb goalkeeping from Nour Elding kept the scores even. And it was the visitors who were to have the final say when the brilliant Ahmed sealed the win with a brilliant solo effort with only 90 seconds left on the clock.

Disappointed SA coach Brendan Carolan rightly blamed his team’s failure in front of goal as the reason for their downfall.

“ We just did not play well… we have to convert our chances. We’ve seen our errors and just have to work hard at rectifying them,” he said.

His opposite number, Mathias Ahrens said the job was far from over. “We came here to win every game and that focus remains the same.”

Peter Martin reports that the South African girls maintained their unbeaten record in the tournament but struggled to breach an impressive Ghana defence at the Buffalo Flats Astroturf. The hard-fought match ended in a 1-1 draw.

The visitors were the first to score, as early as the fourth minute, when one of their links pushed pass a shaky South African defence. The South Africans were at that stage missing a tremendous amount of opportunities to score. The Ghanaians were like terriers, and every raid started by the South African forwards was stifled with three or four opposition players successfully closing down the attack.

Right on half-time South Africa were unable to convert a penalty corner. The frustrated South Africans had spent 90 percent of the half encamped in Ghanaian territory with nothing to show for their efforts.

The second half was scrappy, with South Africa again making most of the forays into the Ghana circle, only to be thwarted every time. There were also occasional counter-attacks by Ghana. Border’s Bronwynn Kretzman was solid in midfield, but her teammates’ lax passing for much of the game led to SA’s impotence.

However, pressure from SA told in the end and in the ninth minute jack-in-the-box Jacinta Jubb – she seemed to pop up everywhere on attack and defence and was magnificent throughout – was rewarded for her hard work with a goal from a short corner. Towards the end of the game both Jubb and Quanita Bobbs had shots at goal that came close to scoring.

Ghana were pressing hard when the hooter went to signal the end of a disappointing match which as a spectacle never rose to any great heights.

Today’s fixtures are:

Girls: 10am, Kenya v Ghana; 6pm, South Africa v Zimbabwe.

Boys: noon, Zimbabwe v Namibia; 2pm, Ghana v Egypt; 4pm, South Africa v Kenya.

Article By: DOMINIC PEEL