Bright Secures Narrow Win

Tarryn Bright of South Africa slides to prevent the ball from going over the sideline against Canada in their first test match in the SPAR Cup Tri-Nations Hockey Tournament being held at the Randburg Hockey Stadium in Johannesburg. Kim Buker of Canada defending. SA vs 1-0.

Tarryn Bright struck home a last-minute goal to save
the SPAR South African women’s hockey team’s blushes in the second round of
matches at the SPAR Cup Tri-Nations series, at the Randburg Astro on Wednesday
afternoon.

While South
Africa went out strong and showed some
tactical genius throughout the match, luck was not on their side as chances
aplenty went wide or over goal.

The home team are using this series to try out some of
their tactics ahead of the Olympic Games taking place in Beijing this year and for coach Jenny King,
there were enough good passages of play to suggest they are on track.

"At halftime, we acknowledged that we were playing
good hockey and the amount of chances we created was quite encouraging to see,"
said King.

King’s players struggled to score in the first half
despite picking up four penalty corners, with Canadian captain Sarah Forbes,
who is also the goalkeeper, said the South Africans seemed a bit predictable at
times.

"We looked at their key players and sometimes are able
to work out what they going to do in the penalty corner," reckoned Forbes. "South Africa
pick up a lot of penalty corners and if they can get that going, then they’ll
score quite a bit more."

South Africa didn’t get any more penalty corners in
the second half, but King made a tactical change about 10 minutes from time
which saw them looking like a different team altogether.

SA captain Marsha Marescia pulled her troops together
to make sure they all understood their roles, and minutes later Bright found
herself in a pocket of space just in front of goal which allowed her space to
bang in the goal with two minutes to go.

"We playing a system that the forwards aren’t
comfortable with and it will take time before it settles," said King, "We
always felt that the goal was going to come, especially in that final seven
minutes, because we put so much pressure on them.

"It was encouraging to see the midfield putting some
good moves together and also up front so we’re happy with this performance."

South
Africa take on Russia on Thursday here at the
Randburg Hockey Stadium in their third round of matches. The hosts beat the
Russians 6-0 on Monday and should be able to navigate that fixture easily.