Other Sport
SA men edged by Argentina
2012-11-26 09:25
Cape Town - The inexperienced South Africa men’s hockey team were shaded 2-1 by host country Argentina in Sunday night’s 22:30 (SA time) second-round match at the Champions Challenge tournament in Quilmes, just outside Buenos Aires.
The Argentines led 1-0 at half-time through Gonzalo Peillat’s 10th-minute penalty corner. SA equalised 13 minutes after the changeover through penalty corner exponent Matthew Guise-Brown’s maiden Test match goal, but 33-year-old Willy Schickendantz was on hand at the far post to tip in the winner 14 minutes from time.
South Africa, the least experienced Champions Challenge team by some distance, left out nine London 2012 Olympians for this tournament and brought in 10 new players including four on debut.
The Africa continent's champions drew 4-4 with Japan in their opening Pool B match on Saturday night after leading 4-1 with 20 minutes left.
In Sunday night's other Pool B match Japan were flattering 3-0 winners over luckless Ireland, while Malaysia upset world number seven and tournament favourites South Korea 4-2 in Pool A and Poland surprised by holding Canada to a 3-3 draw.
After Monday’s rest day, SA will face Ireland at 18:30 (SA time) Tuesday in the teams’ final Pool B match before Thursday’s quarter-finals.
Ireland must beat SA to avoid last place in Pool B while to end in second place in the group, South Africa will be looking for a decisive victory over the Irish and hoping that Argentina beat Japan convincingly.