The Spar South African women’s team produced arguably the most memorable victory in their history when they edged Belgium in the quarterfinals of the sixth FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup, at the Heartfelt Arena in Pretoria on Friday.
Jess O’Connor’s team withstood a relentless late surge from the Belgians to win 2-1, achieving their best-ever performance on the global stage in reaching the semi-finals.
Afterwards the South African captain, who scored their first goal, was ecstatic with the performance and praised her teammates for their resilience under extreme pressure.
“We knew we just had to maintain our focus, to keep shuffling in defence and to stay tight in the middle,” she said as Belgian frantically pressed for the equaliser in the closing minutes.
A historical moment in South African Sporting history as the SPAR South Africa womens Indoor hockey team earned Africa's first ever World Cup Semi-Final.
— SA Hockey (@SA_Hockey) February 11, 2023
The Emotions were high. We are Proudly South African#IHWC2023 pic.twitter.com/Yi4HuA1dpJ
“We did concede two penalty corners, but it took big match temperament to keep them out and we had that today.
“This result is just unbelievable for South Africa (ranked 14th in the world) and unbelievable for the team. I’m so proud of their efforts and this is our best performance by a country mile.”
With Tegan Fourie scoring South Africa’s second goal, the host nation finally hit their straps after a frustrating week to record their third win in row.
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It was the perfect moment to fire on all cylinders, O’Connor said afterwards.
“We have been training really hard on our connections leading up to this and in other matches we almost haven’t been allowed to play our game,” she said.
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“I don’t know if we were playing with fear or what was happening, but we hadn’t been connecting. Every team talk we spoke about being fearless and we finally were able to fire this time. “We found our connections; we kept our composure and we just kept moving the ball until we found the spaces we needed.”
The South African men’s team, were not able to make it a double, trailing 5-0 at halftime to the formidable Netherlands outfit and eventually losing 6-3.
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