South Africa’s hopes dashed by Austria in Indoor Hockey World Cup

The 2023 Indoor Hockey World Cup women’s semi-finalists South Africa were taught a harsh lesson by Austria at this year’s edition in Croatia on Tuesday.

The beaten finalists from the last tournament in Pretoria put 10 goals past the hapless South Africans at the Zatika Sports Centre in Porec without conceding.

They scored three goals in the first quarter, two goals in the second and two in the third. A further three goals were scored in the fourth, including a penalty stroke, as the South Africans sacrificed their goalkeeper for an outfield player as they chased the game.

The South African team had come into the tournament with high hopes of improving on their performance at home two years ago. But the warning signs were there in the laboured 4-all draw with Malaysia in Monday’s opening match.

While the Asian champions sat back and allowed SA to come onto them, pouncing on their mistakes, the Austrians played a high-intensity pressing game from the start and never allowed them to settle. They were also ruthless in punishing any lapses by the SA players.

SA head coach AJ Spieringshoek admitted they just weren’t good enough on the day.

“So today was obviously really, really tough to deal with. We were unfortunately not good at all, but we were also up against a team that was ruthlessly efficient,” he said. “We’re all absolutely gutted.

“I mean, a draw would have kept us in it but a win would have given us an extra step towards qualifying for the next round. Now we’ve got to hope for some results to go our way and that we get a win against a very, very strong Poland.

“Everybody is really, really disappointed ... we weren’t proud of what we put in. We’re definitely not a team that should be losing 10-0 to Austria, but Austria was really good. We didn’t do anything right and every time we made a mistake, Austria capitalised on it.”

With Wednesday being a rest day for the team, the SA squad will have time to regroup ahead of their final Pool B match against Poland. SA is in third place with one point while Poland is in second behind Austria, with four points.

“It’s going to be tough now to pull ourselves back and to pick ourselves up. We’ve got a day off, which is not a bad thing, and then we’ve got to fight hard for a win to try and qualify for the quarter-finals,” Spieringshoek said.

“We’ve made life very difficult for ourselves but everybody in our team will have serious looks at themselves and ask the question of how we can be better and what we can do to be better. But I believe in the team and I believe that we will find the solutions needed to be successful our next game.”

The top two teams in each of the three pools, as well as the two best third-placed teams will advance to the quarter-finals.

In the men’s match played on Tuesday, the Proteas lost 8-6 to Austria.