South Africa, powered by Tops at SPAR, affectionately known as the BlitzStoks were looking for the opportunity to get their first win of the tournament and a second place in Pool B at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Pretoria as they took on Czech Republic on day 2.<\/p>\n
A vociferous crowd greeted both teams but they were led to silence when Toms found a corridor of space in the circle off the back of the defenders and flicked over Anton van Loggerenberg to give the Europeans a lead. South Africa though pulled level thanks to the brotherly connection of Mustapha and Dayaan seeing the latter delight the crowd.<\/p>\n
But they were stunned to silence as the darlings of the crowd conceded twice in a few minutes to be 3-1 at the end of the quarter. In the second quarter South Africa pulled one back through Mustapha Cassiem from a penalty corner but they went into the half-time break trailing 3-2.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t something they would have to worry about for too long though. Mustapha was given the chance to level from a stroke after his brothers shot hit a foot on the line, and the younger Cassiem dispatched the ball superbly into the side netting. A minute later he had another stroke, this time after his brother was taken out in a physical battle. This time he changed height and direction but not effect as the goal gave the hosts the lead.<\/p>\n
It was a lead they would not relinquish adding another through Mustapha after effecting a turnover. Despite the Europeans pulling a goal back the South Africans extended their lead through Chad Futcher, Mustapha again and captain Jethro Eustice as the hosts rode out an exceptionally ill-tempered ending to the game seeing the Czechs have two concurrent sin binned players on two separate occasions.<\/p>\n
The South African men now sit in second place in their group and can confirm their spot in the Quarter-Finals with a victory against the United States tomorrow and in the process secure a best ever Indoor Hockey World Cup finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"