The South African national women’s hockey team booked a place in the Setanta Sports Trophy four-nations tournament final against Olympic champs Germany, after beating Scotland 2-1 on Saturday.
After playing out to nil-all half-time draw, South Africa conceded a goal seven minutes into the second half, but played well to claim victory coming from behind to stay in contention for the tournament silverware.
Scotland took the initiative and the lead with a Samantha Judge field goal early in the second half, before vice-captain Jen Wilson equalised a short while later from a penalty-corner variation for South Africa’s first goal of the tournament.
Sharne Bailey (nee Wehmeyer) scored from a rebound off the keeper in the 65th minute to clinch a place in the decider. “Yes, a good win for us, but we did make it a little more difficult, considering the amount of ball we had,” national coach Jenny King told gsport after the match.
“Again, we played very well, (but) didn’t make use of chances that came to us, particularly during the first half, and we went 1-0 down in the second half, but did very well to come back,” said King.
South Africa now play Germany in Sundays four nations final, and King indicated that her team stood a good chance of scoring an upset, provided the girls started capitalising on scoring opportunities.
“In fact, it was a game which possibly we could have won,” said King about the round-robin match against Germany on Friday, which the South African team narrowly lost 0-1.
“They got a goal right at the end of the match, but certainly our best performance this week, and we’re looking forward to the final,” continued King.
“I think we’ve found ways in which we can get on top of them, but it’s a case of we’ve been found wanting in the circle, putting the ball in the back of the box. Unless we change that tomorrow, we’re going to end up on the end of a loss.
“Their mid-fielders are extremely tough, and very creative in their running, so it just takes a lot of hard work to ensure that we don’t leave players un-marked, because they’ve got very big fire-power up front.
“They rely on their midfield to create the goal-scoring opportunities for those players,” the national coach concluded.
In the second match on Saturday, Ireland lost 3-1 to Germany, to play Scotland in a play-off for 3rd place.
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