{"id":4936,"date":"2025-10-13T09:40:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T07:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=4936"},"modified":"2025-10-13T09:40:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T07:40:55","slug":"south-africa-open-campaign-with-confident-win-over-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/13\/south-africa-open-campaign-with-confident-win-over-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Open Campaign with Confident Win Over Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa\u2019s men\u2019s hockey team began their Africa Cup of Nations title defence with a 3\u20131 victory over Kenya in Ismailia, Egypt, on Sunday <\/span><span class=\"s4\">afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo credit &#8211; Jan van Zyl<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">The opening day of action had seen the South Africans awarded a 5\u20130 walkover when Zambia failed to honour their fixture on Saturday, but Sunday\u2019s clash against Kenya provided the first real test on the field for the defending champions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">There was added significance to the occasion as <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Cullin<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> de Jager, Ryan Mann, <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Ayakha<\/span> <span class=\"s4\">Mthalane<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> and Niel <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Raath<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> were all handed their senior international debuts in the green and gold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">After a cagey first quarter, the breakthrough came midway through the second period. Captain Dayaan Cassiem linked brilliantly with his brother Mustapha, who fired a pinpoint pass across goal for Keenan Horne to finish superbly on the reverse stick<\/span><span class=\"s4\">, <\/span><span class=\"s4\">a goal that showcased South Africa\u2019s trademark attacking flair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">The lead was doubled shortly after through a penalty corner as Mustapha Cassiem took charge and rifled home a drag flick to make it 2\u20130 at the halftime break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">Kenya, to their credit, fought back in the third quarter and found a lifeline when <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Bethuel<\/span> <span class=\"s4\">Masambu<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> capitalised on a scrappy penalty corner, pulling one back despite South Africa\u2019s control of possession and territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">Any hopes of a Kenyan comeback were, however, quickly extinguished when Calvin Davis converted from another penalty corner with a low and hard finish to restore the two-goal cushion and seal a 3\u20131 win for the South Africans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s5\"><span class=\"s4\">The defending champions will now turn their attention to a mouth-watering clash against hosts Egypt on Tuesday<\/span><span class=\"s4\">,<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> a fixture that never fails to deliver intensity, passion, and plenty of drama.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s men\u2019s hockey team began their Africa Cup of Nations title defence with a 3\u20131 victory over Kenya in Ismailia, Egypt, on Sunday afternoon. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/13\/south-africa-open-campaign-with-confident-win-over-kenya\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936","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=4936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4938,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936\/revisions\/4938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}