Cape Town — After tasting defeat in their opening 2022 FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup match on Sunday, South Africa will be desperate to win their next Pool D clash on Tuesday against Japan.
The 16th world-ranked South Africa went down 4-1 to Japan, the world No 5. The outcome of their showdown on Tuesday will be a huge step towards qualifying for the knock-out stages.
Japan will be equally desperate to win after going down 2-0 to Australia in the opening Pool D fixture.
With two more pool matches remaining, time is running out for the South Africans to reach the crossover phase of the tournament.
The SA technical staff would have noted that the game against Belgium was a game of penalty corners as four of five goals in the game came off set pieces.
Despite the score margin Belgium's Red Panthers had 15 penalty corners in the game to South Africa’s three.
Stephanie Vanden Borre put in two penalty corner goals in the second quarter to give Belgium a cushion.
Belgium retained most of the possession but couldn’t find a way in free play past South African keeper Phumelela Mbande.
South Africa had few attacks but were able to garner a penalty corner in the 24th minute after a fast break.
Almost catching Belgium by surprise, the ball was very quickly slapped down the pipe and Jean-Leigh du Toit’s shot beat Aisling D’hooghe between the pads to cut Belgium’s lead in half.
It was a small resolve though as Belgium still dominated the second half. Credit to Mbande who continued to stymie waves of attack including several penalty corners and a stunner of a backhand from Charlotte Englebert.
Englebert was on fire in the fourth quarter, and she buried a penalty corner variation after connecting with the ball to make it 3-1 in the 53rd minute.
In the dying minutes, the eventual ‘Player of the Match’ Englebert was there to blast in a rebound for a fourth goal in the 57th minute. The 4-1 win gave Belgium the three points they needed to start their tournament on a high.
IOL Sport