FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023: Goals were galore as SA stuns Malaysia and Argentina routs Chile

Goals were galore as the classification games to decide ninth to 16th position commenced at Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela on Thursday. Pan American champions Argentina raced to a big 8-0 win over their continental rivals Chile while African champions South Africa recorded a convincing 6-3 win over Malaysia.

Earlier, Wales surprised France with a 2-1 win in the penalty shootout after two teams played a 2-2 draw in the regulation period.

Now in the next round of classification matches, Wales will take on Argentina while South Africa awaits the winners of the India-Japan match.

Playing cohesive and purposeful hockey, South Africa took full measure of the Malaysians in the first game of the day. The Africans had run into a comfortable 3-0 lead by the time the two teams broke for interval.

 Sherwood Bradley, who scored two brilliant field goals in the 8th and 56th minute, was the toast of the South African team. Morgan Guy (18th minute of a penalty corner) and Ntuli Niqobile (25th minute) with a field goal had the Malaysians under pressure.

After a change of ends, Malaysia pulled one back when Rahim Razie scored first of his two goals of the match in the 34th minute with a well executed penalty corner conversion. Two quick goals by South Africans – first by Keenan in the 42nd minute (field goal) – and a penalty stroke conversion by Cassian Mustaphaa in the 43rd minute had givemn South Africa 6-2 lead. Ashari Firhan with a marvellous field goal in the 56th minute reduced the margin for Malaysia.

Two goals by S Corentin were not enough to see France through in  its game against Wales in the second match of the day. Corentin scored in the 14th and 20th minutes while Hawker Luke(ninth minute) and Gareth Furlong with a 22nd minute penalty conversion had put the two teams at par. None could score afterwards in the remaining time of the match. In the resultant penalty shootout, Wales scored twice through Shipperley Rupert and Frances Benjamin while Clement Timothee recorded the sole success for France.

Argentina went on a scoring spree in its game against Chile in the third game of the day. Three of the goals for former Olympic champions came from penalty corners while the remaining were the result of complete domination of the field by the Pan American champions.Seven of their players figured on the scoreboard. Casella Maico (16th and 32 minute) scored a brace of field goals against a vulnerable Chilean defence. Della Torre Nicolas had opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a penalty corner conversion. Next to get on the score sheet was Toscani Lucas in the 19th minute with a penalty corner conversion followed by C. Baptista’s field goal in the 22nd minute. Nicolas Keenan (24th minute), Martin Ferreira (50th minute) were other field scorers before Damene Tamos sealed the tally with a penalty corner conversion in the 55th minute.

Prabhjot Singh