SA teams reach quarterfinals to claim history at home World Cup

The SA men’s and women’s teams rewrote their history books at the Indoor World Hockey Cup in Pretoria on Thursday as both secured first quarterfinal berths. 

Mustapha Cassiem scored a last-gasp goal to give SA a 6-5 victory over flamboyant tournament debutants Argentina, who took down outfits such as Iran and the US. Six of the women scored to beat New Zealand 6-3. 

Until Thursday, the best finishes by SA at this event were ninth by the women and 10th by the men. Now neither can do worse than top eight. In the full-field version of the game, the women once ended seventh, in 1998. 

The men probably produced their best performance of the competition to date, showing tighter defence, sharper shooting and generally better control, three times building up leads, all of which were eliminated. But for a change, they never trailed. 

Dayaan Cassiem scored the first with a sharp reverse flick from a tight angle and Mustapha Cassiem made it 2-0 a few minutes later.

The Argentinians equalised in the second quarter, but Chad Futcher made it 3-2, collecting the ball after a great dance upfield by Mustapha and then getting the ball past the rapidly advancing goalkeeper. 

“Honestly, I was pretty much staring at Musi,” said Futcher. “The brilliance of him coming up the middle of the field was just stunning. I had a lucky break when the ball came. The keeper was coming out, I saw out the corner of my eye and luckily he went down and I went over him.”

Argentina equalised through a penalty stroke. 

Mustapha and Futcher each scored again to make it 5-3 in the third quarter, and again the Argentinians levelled matters, their fifth goal coming from a penalty stroke conceded by Mustapha who knocked the ball away from the goal too hard for the umpire’s liking. He protested at the decision and continued showing his disapproval on-field during a brief break, holding his stick up with a look of disbelief on his face. 

But Mustapha made up for it in fine fashion as he slotted the winner in the final minute of the match. 

“It’s emotional because we have so many fans out here, little kids that we’re just trying to inspire, that’s for my family, that’s for them. Being able to score a goal like that you just have to believe and that’s what we did from the very start.”