{"id":5554,"date":"2026-06-14T07:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=5554"},"modified":"2026-06-14T07:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:14:46","slug":"south-africa-power-past-usa-to-keep-semi-final-hopes-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/14\/south-africa-power-past-usa-to-keep-semi-final-hopes-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa power past USA to keep semi-final hopes alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa produced the performance they needed in front of a sold-out <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Hartleyvale<\/span><span class=\"s4\">Stadium, defeating the USA 4-0 to keep their FIH Hockey Nations Cup semi-final hopes firmly alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Picture: Ayakha Mthalane Player of South Africa celebrates with teammates after scoring the team\u2019s second goal <\/em><em>WORLDSPORTPICS \/ Christiaan Kotze<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">It was the first meeting between the two nations in six years, and with South Africa needing a win to stay in the hunt, the home crowd created a brilliant atmosphere for a crucial Pool clash.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The match was also a special milestone for Andrew Hobson, who earned his 50th international cap for South Africa. The hosts were, however, dealt a blow before the game with confirmation that Mustapha Cassiem would miss the remainder of the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">South Africa started with real intent and dominated possession early on. Their pressure was rewarded in the 13th minute when Calvin Davis opened the scoring with a well-taken penalty corner finish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Tevin <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Kok<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> and Dayaan Cassiem combined superbly throughout the first half, asking regular questions of the American defence, but the USA remained resolute and kept the deficit to one at the break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Leading 1-0 at half-time, South Africa lifted the tempo after the interval and began to take control. <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Ayakha<\/span> <span class=\"s4\">Mth<\/span><span class=\"s4\">a<\/span><span class=\"s4\">lane<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> missed a good opportunity before making amends in style, scoring his first international goal after a brilliant attacking move. Nic Spooner picked out Sihle Ngubane, who in turn fed <\/span><span class=\"s4\">Mth<\/span><span class=\"s4\">a<\/span><span class=\"s4\">lane<\/span><span class=\"s4\">, and the forward spun sharply before finishing superbly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Mth<\/span><span class=\"s4\">a<\/span><span class=\"s4\">lane<\/span><span class=\"s4\"> added his second in the final quarter when a rebound fell kindly, and he drilled a low, hard finish into the backboard to double his tally and put South Africa in complete control.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Kenton Melville then added the cherry on top with South Africa\u2019s fourth, poking home directly from a penalty corner to seal an emphatic victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">The result moves South Africa into second place ahead of Ireland on goal difference, setting up a massive Youth Day showdown between the two sides in what is effectively a virtual quarter-final for a place in the semi-finals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa produced the performance they needed in front of a sold-out HartleyvaleStadium, defeating the USA 4-0 to keep their FIH Hockey Nations Cup semi-final <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/14\/south-africa-power-past-usa-to-keep-semi-final-hopes-alive\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-5554","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\/5554","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=5554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5559,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5554\/revisions\/5559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}