HOCKEY: It was a disappointing afternoon for the Hockey5s team conceding five goals in the third period to give underdogs South Africa the win.
The Aussie's led 5-1 at the final break and thought they had the game wrapped up but South Africa were thinking the total opposite gaining the lead with 2 minutes to go after scoring five unanswered goals.
After starting the game perfectly leading four nil at the first break coach David Guest knows momentum is never easy to defend.
“In sport, when a team gets on a bit of a roll it can be really hard to stop. South Africa got a taste of victory and they put a lot of pressure on us in the final stage,” he said.
Corey Weyer got the boys off to a great start slotting home the team’s first goal. It wasn’t long before Alec Rasmussen put one past the keeper to extend the lead.
An impressive goal scoring performance from Mackenzie Warne continued adding two more in the first period to see the Aussie’s head into the break 4-0.
Hockey5s allows goals to be scored from anywhere on the field and Weyer took advantage of that, smashing the ball from over half way to fly into the goal.
South Africa finally capitalised one of their opportunities to trail at the second break 5-1.
Tables turned in the last stanza, the opposition scored four goals in three minutes to bring them and the crowd back into the game.
The Aussie fans were cheering their team home but to no avail, South Africa scored again to leave the green and gold shocked.
After South Africa took the lead, they attempted to slow down the game but the referee was having none of it giving two players yellow cards.
Two minutes to go, one goal to draw and only three players defending was what Australia was dealt with in the final moments.
Unfortunately the green and gold could not find the back of the net, going down 6-5 in a thrilling last period.
“I don’t think we played the last moments all that well. We tried to hit through two of their guys where passing the ball around would’ve been the ideal option but this is a learning tournament,” Guest explained.
The shocked coach couldn’t believe what just happened out on the field especially leading 5-0 at one point.
“Our fitness might have let us down perhaps in the third period. Sometimes when you get ahead so many goals up so early the mentality changes a little bit. This format’s a bit different; scoring five goals isn’t safe like it is in 11 a-side hockey,” Guest said.
“It’s an exciting challenging game and South Africa played really well to get back in it. We need to learn from this game and know how to play under those pressure situations.”
Phillip Brent
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
