Hockey Britain avoids surprise with late draw against South Africa in men’s Pool A

PARIS – Second-placed Great Britain avoided an upset against South Africa at the Olympic hockey tournament by forcing a 2-2 draw with South Africa in Pool A on Sunday. A last-minute goal from a set-piece secured a 2-2 draw with South Africa.

Great Britain had the upper hand but swift counter-attacks from the 13th-placed South Africans twice wrong-footed them and nearly cost the target team points in a tight group.

“I thought we deserved at least a point, if not three. I thought the corner we took (which levelled the score) was quite fair,” said England captain David Ames.

“But a really good game, South Africa played quite well. They were really deep and made it so difficult for us, which we thought would happen given the difference in ranking points. I’m happy with a point and that we came back the way we did,” he said.

South Africa’s opening scorer Andrew Hobson added: “Emotions are running high but we feel we deserve three points.

“We have a rest day tomorrow and then we just have to keep our momentum going. We can’t let one result determine the rest of our tournament.”

Top-ranked Netherlands defeated hosts France 4-0 in the other Pool A match to go top with six points. Spain recovered from Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Great Britain, who are second with four points, to beat recent World Cup winners Germany 2-0.

Reigning champions Belgium defeated New Zealand 2-1 in the only match in Pool B to top the standings with six points. However, second-placed India and third-placed Australia can level the score by beating Argentina and Ireland respectively on Monday.

New Zealand have now suffered two defeats to start the tournament, leaving them bottom of Pool B with three games remaining.

Four of the six teams from each pool will advance to the knockout rounds which begin on Sunday.

The first matches on Sunday were more exciting than on the opening day. With the exception of one match, all matches were decided by only one goal, apart from the 2-0 victory of the German women’s team over Japan.

In other women’s matches, Australia defeated South Africa 2-1, while Spain defeated Great Britain and Belgium defeated China by the same score. REUTERS