The South African men’s indoor hockey team reached the World Cup semi-finals for the first time on Friday with a 6-0 thrashing of Iran.
The BlitzStoks were fast out of the blocks.
They opened the scoring with a spectacular Mustaphaa Cassiem roundhouse flick off a penalty corner. It has become a trademark of the talented younger brother of skipper Dayaan Cassiem.
They led 3-0 at half-time at the Zatika Sports Centre in Porec.
Iran, the world No 2, had no answer to the speed, energy and trickery of the South Africans.
The BlitzStoks added two more goals in the third quarter (5-0) and one more in the final chukka (6-0).
Mustaphaa Cassiem got three of those.
Young Litha Kraai also got on the score-sheet with a delightful reverse flick with his back to goal. It flew high into the roof of the net.
They were also solid defensively, led by Player-of-the-Match Jethro Eustice.
The BlitzStoks were able to cope admirably in the absence of defensive stalwart Justin Dolmeo.
Rusten Abrahams, Keegan Hezlett and Leruo Ditlhakanayane stepped into the breach admirably.
“We made sure from a defensive point of view that we were really solid and resolute in every aspect of the game: short- corner defence, counter-attack, watching the ball coming across the D into the top circle,” head coach Justin Rosenberg said after the match.
“The guys were really low, clinical.
“They were making sure they were patient and obviously sprung counter-attack after counter-attack to take the game away from the Iranians.
“Keeping a clean sheet in a quarter-final is absolutely spectacular. I must commend all the players, from the goalkeeper to defenders, to the middle man, guys up front because defending begins from the front.”
The BlitzStoks had booked their place in quarter-final by finishing second in their pool. They had beaten hosts Croatia and Poland.
The narrow 8-6 loss to world champions Austria instilled in them the belief that they could exorcise the ghosts of 2023.
And Rosenberg appeared to have the perfect plan for their more experienced but ageing rivals.
“We knew that today we were going to start slowly but obviously had to patient in our game plan and what we needed to execute,” Rosenberg said.
“We knew that chukka two, three and four, the Iranians wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace and our counter-attack.
“That showed in our patience going into chukka two, when we went another goal up, and another.”
The BlitzStoks will face Germany in Saturday’s semi-final full of belief that that can go all the way.
“Today was something we had been looking forward to since the last World Cup when we bowed out in the quarter-final,” Rosenberg said.
“We’d had this dream of taking it one step further.
“History made today and what a special group to make history, taking us into a first ever semi-final at a major event for a men’s team,” Rosenberg concluded.
Meanwhile, the South African women’s team also secured a 6-0 win over hosts of Croatia in the play-offs for ninth to twelfth place.
It has been a frustrating tournament for the 2023 semi-finalists.
South Africa now face off against Australia in the fight for ninth place.
They will be hoping to wrap up their tournament on a high.