Player of the match, Gaspard Baumgarten scored a brace as France registered their second win of FIH Pro League Hockey 2021-22.
A two-goal opening quarter proved decisive as France registered a comfortable 4-1 win against South Africa to move to fourth place with seven points from five matches in FIH Pro League hockey 2021-22. It was their second win of the campaign, following a 5-2 shock victory against Olympic bronze medallists India last week. (More Hockey News)
South Africa still winless after five outings are rooted at the bottom of the nine-team table. The undefeated Netherlands are at the top, followed by Belgium and India. England Argentina, Spain and Germany are the other teams.
South Africa and France will meet again on Sunday, February 20 after playing games against Germany, who join them in Potchefstroom.
Gaspard Baumgarten opened the scoring as early as the 4th minute before Blaise Rogeau made in 2-0 for France inside the tenth in the first quarter.
Baumgarten made it 3-0 in the 41st minute in a player of the match performance. Timothee Clement scored in the 54th minute before Dayaan Cassiem pulled one back for the hosts in the 57th minute. Cassiem was however unlucky to only tally once as he also hit the crossbar in the final quarter.
"I’m not too much a striker but happy to score today and even more happy for the win of the team. We are really happy (with their overall performance in South Africa). We played great hockey and tried to play better and better each game which was the purpose for being here,” Baumgarten said after the match.
It was clear from the opening whistle that France were keen to pick up from their second and third games last week that saw them tie the Netherlands and beat India.
They wasted little time getting to work as three minutes in and France had a penalty corner. Moments later a flurry of shots put the South Africans under pressure. The final shot by Baumgarten took a touch off South African Nduduzo Lembethe and the ball popped through the legs of keeper Gowan Jones for the opening goal.
South Africa’s Nqobile Ntuli had the best chance of the half for the hosts but the back-hand shot pinged off the post in the seventh minute.
France doubled their lead in the 10th minute. Eliot Curty charged alone down the right side and his sweeping pass was deflected well by a diving Francois Goyet’s reverse stick. Rogeau was there at the near post to finish the swift counterattack play and seal the 2-0 lead for France.
Estiaan Kriek subbed into the South African net after the opening break and he punched away a brilliant shot from Baumgarten in the 17th minute to leave the game still 2-0 by halftime.
France, though clinical in execution, looked to relax their tempo in the third quarter. South Africa forced a number of turnovers and created lots of counter-attack play but failed to find any kind of finish.
Despite the casual play of France, they were nonetheless clinical when they entered the South African circle. Mateo Desgouilllons forced a close-range save out of Gowan Jones in the 34th minute.
The teams then spent a good seven minutes trading away sloppy turnovers but France were able to find their strides in the 41st.
A brilliant deceptive pass from Stanislas Branicki paced the ball out to the right side and the pass came firing in to Baumgarten. The shot needed a deflection from defender Leneal Jackson to give France a 3-0 lead.
The final quarter really sided with South Africa. Nqobile Ntuli and Cassium brothers -- Dayaan and Mustapha -- were combining dangerously up, but still without result.
Dayaan then put on a show dancing his way with 3D skills past four French defenders only to leave Ryan Julius with a shot at goal but the ball blasted wide left of the net.
France found their fourth goal on an aerial ball that allowed a baseline entry for Gaspar Xavier. His pass was sent into traffic for Clement to knock in and France took the lead 4-0.
South Africa stayed in it and denied Clement’s penalty corner with a goalline save from Nicholas Spooner, while Dayaan hit a cross-bar moment.
It was a sign of what was to come as Mustapha set up his brother Dayaan to break the France shutout with three minutes to go in the game. It was too little, too late and France finished with the 4-1 victory and their second set of three points in their opening tour of the FIH Pro League.
South African captain Horne said after the loss: “We had a quite a few chances and it’s a pity they didn’t go in. The French are very clinical and they did well and if you can’t score you can’t win. We will do our analysis after the game. There’s lots to take out of it. We had a lot of soft turnovers but they were just very clinical.”