{"id":4642,"date":"2025-06-17T19:57:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=4642"},"modified":"2025-06-17T19:57:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:57:02","slug":"comeback-win-sparks-sa-hockey-womens-campaign-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/comeback-win-sparks-sa-hockey-womens-campaign-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Comeback Win Sparks SA Hockey Women\u2019s Campaign to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">The South African Women\u2019s Hockey Team ignited their FIH Nations Cup campaign with a resilient 3\u20131 comeback victory over Malaysia in Poland. Despite seeing two penalty strokes saved, the South Africans overturned a half-time deficit to claim all three points and breathe momentum into their tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">South Africa started brightly, winning an early penalty corner, but the shot was ruled dangerous. Moments later, they earned a golden opportunity to go ahead with a penalty stroke. Quanita Bobbs stepped up, but her effort was brilliantly saved by Malaysian goalkeeper Nur Zainal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">Onthatile<\/span><span class=\"s3\"> Zulu went close with a shot that shaved past the post, and Hannah Pearce narrowly missed with a penalty corner effort. But despite creating the better chances, it was Malaysia who took the lead. A lapse at the back post allowed <\/span><span class=\"s3\">Abang<\/span><span class=\"s3\"> to control the ball, turn inside, and fire low into the corner to put Malaysia 1\u20130 up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">In the second quarter, South Africa continued to press but struggled to maintain momentum due to several unforced errors. Head coach Inky Zondi would have been frustrated with the lack of cutting edge as the teams went into the break with Malaysia leading 1\u20130.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">Whatever was said in the change room at half-time clearly worked, as South Africa came out with renewed intent and resilience. The breakthrough came from Ntsopa Mokoena, who latched onto a pass from Bobbs, drove into the circle, and unleashed a powerful slap into the bottom left corner to level the scores.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">Like London buses, the second goal followed quickly. This time, <\/span><span class=\"s3\">Cailynn<\/span><span class=\"s3\"> den Bakker found <\/span><span class=\"s3\">Thati<\/span><span class=\"s3\"> Zulu in space, and the striker made no mistake, firing home into the same spot as Mokoena had minutes earlier to make it 2\u20131.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">The result was sealed in the final quarter when Hannah Pearce\u2014on her 51st international appearance\u2014converted from a penalty corner. Her shot was perfectly placed, evading two decoy runners and wrong-footing the goalkeeper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">South Africa earned another penalty stroke when den Bakker was brought down illegally, but once again Zainal produced a remarkable save, this time denying Tegan Fourie. Fortunately, the miss didn\u2019t prove costly, and South Africa walked away with a well-deserved win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s3\">They now look ahead to their final group stage clash against hosts Poland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Photo credit FIH \/ World Sport Pics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Women\u2019s Hockey Team ignited their FIH Nations Cup campaign with a resilient 3\u20131 comeback victory over Malaysia in Poland. Despite seeing two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/comeback-win-sparks-sa-hockey-womens-campaign-to-life\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-4642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","tag-fih-hockey-nations-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4644,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions\/4644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}