Cape Town - A clinical display from the Rio Olympic silver medallists Belgium on Monday dashed any hope the South African national men’s hockey team had of qualifying for the playoffs of the FIH Hockey World League semi-finals.
According to the SASCOC website, Belgium won the last group match of the tournament 9-1.
Belgium got the scoreboard moving after only three minutes when Alexander Hendrickx scored from a penalty corner. The second goal came from field play when Nicolas De Keppel scored.
At half-time the game had already turned into something of a nightmare for the South Africans with five more goals scored in the second chukka.
Belgium led 7-0 with still 30 minutes to play after Thomas Briels (2), Sebastien Dockier, Loick Luypaert and Cedric Charlier all got on the scorecard.
Just minutes into the third chukka Dockier scored again and with a minute left Belgium scored their final goal to rub salt in the South African wounds.
Matt Guise-Brown finally broke the deadlock for the home team by scoring from a penalty corner.
Belgium won silver at the Rio Olympic Games last year and are currently fifth in the world rankings. South Africa lie 15th.
South Africa will now play for ninth place in the tournament.
South Africa’s women play Germany in their quarter-final on Tuesday at 18:00.