Cape Town - The South African men's hockey team have started showing improvement after suffering heavy defeats in their opening FIH Pro League matches in n Potchefstroom.
In their two opening matches against the Netherlands (11-1) and India (10-2) the South Africans came away with an overall goal aggregate of 21-3. Over the weekend, against the same opponents Netherlands (6-2) and India (10-2), the aggregate improved somewhat to 16-4.
The return clash against India was historical. For the first time, the South African men's hockey was captained by a black African Bili Ntuli. He is vastly experienced with close on to 70 caps and his tenure started on a high note when the South Africans opened the scoring against India. In the end, India prevailed for the second time with an identical winning scoreline of 10-2.
On Tuesday night, South Africa will play France and players felt the vastly improved display against the Netherlands is something the team can build on.
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Owen Mvimbi, a seasoned campaigner with over 50 caps said he felt that the team could have caused an upset against the Netherlands.
“It was an interesting game with a lot of big moments that could have swung the game either way," said Mvimbi.
"If we had levelled at 2-all, I believe that the momentum would’ve changed in our direction. However, moments after we missed, they went 3-1 up, which we held them at for some time.
"Having said that, we applied much more pressure than previously, and we did a lot more defensive work on them which held them out and was good. We were a lot more confident on the ball.
"We were not too flustered or too scared which allowed us to get a lot more opportunity to break down their press. All in all, a big improvement from us but we’re still bitterly disappointed because I feel like we left two clear-cut goals out there which could’ve changed the game.
"We’re still learning and growing, but we’re certainly hurting right now because we should have converted our chances. But we will be better, learning to handle the pressure better and learning to shut the back door.
"Six goals is way too much, and we believe we could’ve stopped three of their goals. It was enjoyable but very painful as well, we could have rewarded ourselves more.”
Newcomer Le-Neal Jackson said the performance against the Netherlands had given the team great hope.
“It was a much better performance from us certainly we could’ve been better," said Jackson, who made his debut earlier in February.
Full time and its victory for @TheHockeyIndia as they executed superbly in the final quarter! pic.twitter.com/LQI0i73QG5
— SA Hockey (@SA_Hockey) February 13, 2022
"Pressure- wise we certainly managed to keep them out quite a bit. We managed to play through the midfield and lay on a supply to our forwards.
"We conceded a few soft goals. I think that marking in the circle perhaps needs to be a bit tighter and we cannot give away any soft penalty corners.
"I think there’s a lot that we learnt and a lot to improve on. We will sit down and analyze them and we’ll come out with great energy and try to get a good result against France."
On Saturday, France caused an upset when they defeated Olympic bronze medallists India 5-2.