South Africa push World Champions Austria all the way in tight defeat

The South African Indoor Hockey Men, Powered by Tops at SPAR, produced a scintillating performance to push the double defending champions Austria all the way in a 8-6 defeat at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Croatia. The game was arguably one of the games of the tournament so far as the Austrians had to dig deep to finally secure a win.

Dayaan Cassiem got his team off to the perfect start. He reacted first to a breakdown in play and converted the chance superbly to surprise the World’s top ranked side. That surprise was doubled when Mustapha Cassiem fired home a penalty stroke to double the lead.

Alex Bele pulled one back before Dalpiarro Langford spun and found Mustapha in the middle for the tournament’s top scorer to fire home. Just before half time Austrian captain Unterkircher pulled another back and it was 3-2 to the Africans at the break.

In the second half Langford saw the favour returned as it was passed across from Cassiem and with all the time he fired his effort into the back of the net. Alex Bele pulled one back and parity was restored by Fulop Losonci from a penalty stroke.

South Africa won a clever penalty corner and Mustapha Cassiem fired a trademark roundhouse to make it another hat-trick but as the third quarter reached its conclusion Eitenberger scored to level matters.

Three brilliant Austrian goals early in the final quarter broke the back of the game as Losonci scored another two either side of Unterkircher strike. Cassiem would score another to make it 8-6 but ultimately leave South Africa in a battle for second place in the pool against Poland on Thursday.