{"id":4648,"date":"2025-06-19T19:33:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T17:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=4648"},"modified":"2025-06-20T12:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T10:37:13","slug":"poland-edge-south-africa-to-seal-semi-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/poland-edge-south-africa-to-seal-semi-final-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland edge South Africa to seal Semi-Final spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Poland booked their place in the semi-finals of the inaugural FIH Nations Cup 2 with a thrilling 3-2 victory over South Africa in <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Walcz<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> on Thursday evening, a result that saw the hosts top the group and eliminate the African champions from the title race.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa entered the clash knowing only a win would be enough to secure progression. They couldn\u2019t have asked for a better start<\/span><span class=\"s4\">, <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Quanita Bobbs reacted quickest to a loose ball in the circle and fired home a clinical opener to give the visitors an early lead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">However, the joy was short-lived as Poland struck back almost immediately. A lapse in defensive structure allowed too much space out wide, and a pinpoint cross found Hanna <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Wochna<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> unmarked at the far post to level the scores.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">With both teams needing victory to achieve their objectives, the game opened up into an entertaining end-to-end affair. Poland regained the lead when <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Oliwia<\/span> <span class=\"s4\">Krychniak<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> was afforded too much space in the circle and made no mistake with a composed finish. South Africa earned a penalty corner just before the end of the quarter, but it was well-defended, and they trailed 2-1 at the first break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Poland ramped up the pressure in the second quarter, winning a string of penalty corners. One of them led to a penalty stroke, and although <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Aphiwe<\/span> <span class=\"s4\">Dimba<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> guessed the right way, she couldn\u2019t keep it out as the hosts extended their lead to 3-1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa had their chances, including a penalty corner of their own, but couldn\u2019t find the telling touch. <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Dimba<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> produced a superb save to keep her side in the contest, while Ntsopa Mokoena saw a quick-fire shot fly narrowly wide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">With time ticking away, South Africa threw everything forward and finally found a lifeline. Kayla de Waal produced a dynamic run and Daniella de Oliveira, showing great composure, pounced on the rebound to net her first international goal and cut the deficit to one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Buoyed by the goal, South Africa pushed for an equaliser in the closing minutes, but Poland held firm to clinch the victory and progress to the final four. South Africa, meanwhile, will take a rest day before turning their focus to the 5\u20138 classification bracket<\/span><\/p>\n<p>photo\u00a0credit FIH \/ World Sport Pics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poland booked their place in the semi-finals of the inaugural FIH Nations Cup 2 with a thrilling 3-2 victory over South Africa in Walcz on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/poland-edge-south-africa-to-seal-semi-final-spot\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-4648","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\/4648","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=4648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4650,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4648\/revisions\/4650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}