South Africa played Uganda in their final group stage with their place in the Semi-Final already secured due to the earlier result. Uganda knew they needed to merely contain the South Africans to less than a 14-goal deficit in order to make it through to the Semi-Final.
That meant that Uganda set up ultra-defensively, so much so that in the first half South Africa had 93% of the possession in the game. IT took the hosts a while to score the first but when it came it was from the stick of Matt de Sousa. He took one touch for space before finishing strongly to give the hosts and their home crowd some early cheer. Having been frustrated for a while, the South Africans didn’t wait long for their second with Matt Guise-Brown netting from a PC.
Tevin Kok and Dayaan Cassiem brilliantly combined to set up Bili Ntuli who finished with a hard strike. Dayaan Cassiem then provided the fourth and fifth in similar fashion but from opposite sides of the goal. One for Keenan Horne and on for Sam Mvimbi taking the score to 5-0 lead at the half-time
Uganda was made to get a bit nervous as Guise-Brown made it six and despite denying Mustapha Cassiem on the goal line, they conceded from a tight shot just 30 seconds later to trail 7-0. Not long after it was 8-0 as Cassiem doubled his tally from a penalty corner.
Matt Guise-Brown completed his second hat-trick of the tournament before Brad Sherwood got a goal his play deserved on the night. There was still time for a third for Mustapha Cassiem giving the hosts the perfect 3 out of 3 in the group stages.
The Men will play Ghana in the Semi-Final on Friday at 19:15 with the opportunity to qualify for the final and contest for the place in Paris.
