{"id":4656,"date":"2025-06-22T20:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=4656"},"modified":"2025-06-22T20:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:39:10","slug":"disappointing-conclusion-as-sa-women-fall-to-malaysia-in-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/disappointing-conclusion-as-sa-women-fall-to-malaysia-in-shootout\/","title":{"rendered":"Disappointing Conclusion as SA Women Fall to Malaysia in Shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T<span class=\"s4\">he FIH Nations Cup 2 came to a close in disappointing fashion for the South African Women, who were edged by Malaysia in a shootout after a 1-1 draw in the 7th-place playoff. Having beaten the same opponents earlier in the tournament, the result was a bitter pill to swallow for the African champions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa\u2019s campaign had been marked by frustration in front of goal, and that trend continued on the final day. Despite controlling large spells of the game and dominating the midfield, their inability to convert chances proved costly once again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The first half was goalless, though not without opportunity. Quanita Bobbs forced a save with a powerful effort, before <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Onthatile<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> Zulu\u2019s thunderous strike rattled the crossbar. Malaysia created little in response, with a tame penalty corner comfortably saved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Zulu continued to ask questions of the defence, creating a golden chance for Ntsopa Mokoena who couldn\u2019t find the finish. Kayla de Waal rounded the keeper but lost her footing at the decisive moment, leaving head coach Inky Zondi with hands on head in disbelief.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The third quarter was much of the same. South Africa earned three penalty corners but couldn\u2019t capitalize. Bobbs came close again, flashing her shot just wide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Against the run of play, it was Malaysia who struck first. A diving deflection from Nur <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Azhar<\/span><span class=\"s4\">in the final quarter evaded the reach of <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Mishka<\/span> <span class=\"s4\">Dimba<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> to give the Asian side the lead. But South Africa found a response, showing resilience through <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Charne<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> Maddocks, who lifted a calm finish over the keeper to level matters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">In the shootout, South Africa struck first\u2014Bobbs scored and Marlise van Tonder made a superb save. But Malaysia pulled level after a miss from Cerian Fourie, and the drama intensified. Zulu kept South Africa in it, but Daniella de Oliveira\u2019s successful attempt came just after the buzzer and was ruled out. Despite Fourie converting her second, Malaysia responded again and ultimately secured the shootout victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">It was a campaign of fine margins and frustration for the South Africans, who leave the Nations Cup knowing they created enough\u2014but just didn\u2019t finish enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>photo credit FIH \/ World Sport Pics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FIH Nations Cup 2 came to a close in disappointing fashion for the South African Women, who were edged by Malaysia in a shootout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/disappointing-conclusion-as-sa-women-fall-to-malaysia-in-shootout\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-4656","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\/4656","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=4656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4665,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions\/4665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}