SA women claim more history as they down Belgium for World Cup semifinal

The South African women’s hockey team qualified for their first-ever World Cup semifinal, beating Belgium 2-1 in their last-eight showdown at the Heartfelt Arena in Pretoria on Friday night.

Fuelled by a vocal partisan crowd, the home side played their best hockey of the tournament to date to put themselves in contention for a medal.

The women had never done better than ninth at this event, and in the outdoor game their best was seventh, but O' Connor and her ladies have carved out more history for themselves.

They will face the Netherlands in the semifinal on Saturday (2pm), with Austria and Czech Republic contesting the other match. The final of the Indoor Hockey World Cup is set for Saturday night.

Captain Jess O’ Connor scored South Africa’s opening goal from a penalty corner in the second minute, collecting the ball from Edith Molikoe and then firing high and right past the advancing goalkeeper.

“I wasn't planning on going top right, but as I was pulling the ball I looked up the corner of my eye and I saw the keeper was exposing herself that side so I just opened my face instead of pulling through and I just, I don't know, I guess maybe it was a bit of composure.”

The South Africans were forced to defend for large chunks of the game, but they shut their opponents down effectively, giving them little room to move, especially in and near the circle.

And when South Africa attacked it was with a killer instinct they hadn’t displayed until this match, displaying danger and penetration with quick breakaways.

That’s how Tegan Fourie, the player of the match, netted the second just before halftime, finishing a burst upfield.

If any fans had doubted South Africa had a chance, they were starting to believe.

South Africa remained resolute in the third quarter, but they still probed for opportunities upfield, refusing to sit on their lead.

When Belgium finally got on the board in the third minute of the final quarter, it was from a lightning attack into the circle.

The South African team had every reason to crawl into their shell, or even collapse, but they kept fighting, and survived two late penalty corners, the only two they conceded in the match.

“The whole tournament I've been saying to the team, we haven’t even started to fire, guys,” O’ Connor said afterwards.

“That was the scary thing. We got through to the quarterfinals and we hadn’t even found our groove.

“We were struggling to find connections and today, for some reason, we showed up. We were motivated, we sang on the bus on the way here and honestly we were so energised by the time we got here.

“The crowd was amazing and clearly we were just ready to play.”

And play they did.

The men played in the next match, but they were unable to subdue a clinical Dutch side, who won 6-3.

Trailing 0-5 going into the final quarter, South Africa did well to fight back with three goals through Chad Futcher, Dayaan Cassiem and Mustapha Cassiem.

It might have been 4-5 had Mustapha’s penalty stroke not been saved by Joey Walstijn, but the Dutch put the score beyond doubt with a final strike from Jochem Bakker.

The South African men can still celebrate finishing what should be in sixth position, with spots five to eight determined on world rankings coming into the tournament instead of classification matches.

The women, however, are looking at fourth or a medal.

Can they deliver more history?

Quarterfinal results:

Men: Iran 5 (6) Belgium 5 (5); Austria 2 Argentina 0; US 3 Namibia 2; Netherlands 6 SA 3.

Women: Czech Republic 6 Australia 0; Austria 3 Ukraine 1; SA 2 Belgium 1; Netherlands 6d Canada 1.