Harpal Singh Bedi / Bhubaneswar
Title contender Belgium, after conceding the fastest goal of the tournament, outpaced South Africa 5-1 in their last pool C match of the 14th Hockey World cup at Kalinga stadium here on Saturday.
World number 3 Belgium dominated the proceedings and should have won with much higher margins but for the poor marksmanship by their strikers.
For the winners who led 4-1 at half time the goal scorers were the goal scorers were Alexander Hendrickx (14th,22nd) , Simon Gougnard (18th) Loïck Luypaert (30th) Cedric Charlier(48th). For the losers Nicholas Spooner (1st) was the lone scorer,
.@BELRedLions dominate to win their final pool-stage match against @SA_Hockey by a margin of 5-1 on 8th December at the Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018. #BELvRSA #IndiaKaGame #HWC2018 #DilHockey pic.twitter.com/yG7jhpOf64
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) December 8, 2018
South Africa surprised themselves, the Belgians and the crowd as they surged ahead in the 36th second, scoring the fastest goal, of the tournament , when their striker Nicholas Spooner made a tear way move from left wing and smashed the ball home giving goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch no chance to react.
Buoyed by this unexpected lead, the Africans made couple of more moves with Dayaan Cassiem cutting through the rattled Belgian defence but failing to find the target. Another attack came from the left flank but Julian Hykes shot went over the bar.
It looked that South Africa bit more than they could chew as their fastest goal provoked the fancied side who hit back with vengeance to outclass the African champions.
The furious Belgians drew parity in the 14th minute when they forced their first penalty corner and Alexander Hendrickx flicked the ball home (1-1) i
The African champions countered and had two more chance to score but Dayaan Cassiem failed to convert them from close range, one in the final seconds of the first quarter where he failed to intercept a loose ball inside the ball and then in the first minute of second quarter he made a mess of a chance as he had only the goa keeper to beat but he shot straight into him.
After that Belgium took over and for the next 42 minutes, South African defence had tough time to defend their citadel. The Rampaging Red Lions took the lead in the 18th minute through striker Simon Gougnard,, who had also scored a late goal against India to make it 2-1.
Four minutes later Belgium forced second penalty corner and this time again Alexander Hendrickx was on the target (3-1) and then just before the half time Loick Luypaert converted the third penalty corner to further consolidated the lead.
The second session belonged to Belgium who forced four more penalty corners but failed to convert any of them. The Red Lions kept the pressure and breach the rival defence for the fifth time in the 48th minute through Cedric Charlier (5-1) and that turned out to be the last goal of this match.
A couple of half chances went a begging for Belgians just before the final whistle.