06 Feb, 2025 The quarterfinal line-up was completed after an adrenaline-charged final day of pool matches at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Poreč, Croatia on Thursday, with several sides springing a few surprises. Thailand’s women earned an unexpected spot in the quarterfinals with a sensational 2-1 win over title contenders Austria, silver medallists at the 2023 event. The tournament debutantes opened the scoring in an excellent first quarter in which they could easily have scored several more goals. Austria struggled to get into the match but when they equalised in the 14th minute one would have expected them to assume control. Thailand had other ideas however and a mammoth defensive effort kept them in the match before they snatched the winning goal with eight minutes left on the clock. The player of the match was awarded to Thai goalkeeper Somlak Suttiprapa who spoke animatedly in her native tongue, and according to her translator it boiled down to: “My team can do it!” Poland’s women secured their quarterfinal place with a 4-2 win over South Africa. A breathless Daria Skoraszewska was their player of the match and said: “I am very proud of my team. We played very well.” With both teams already sure of their spots, the match between Germany and Namibia’s women was about top honours in their table, and the Germans romped home 8-1 to advance unbeaten. Philin Bolle bagged a hat-trick for Germany and was named the player of the match. She said afterwards: “We want to do every game more and more and more, and we may be very good but we want more, we want the final in the end.” Meanwhile, Australia’s 2-0 victory over New Zealand was in vain as Thailand’s result sent both Antipodean teams to the bottom four. In men’s action, Mustapha Cassiem bagged another hat-trick to steer South Africa to the quarterfinals with a vital 5-2 win over Poland. “They made it pretty tough for us. We knew that they’re a pretty good team as a unit, and we knew that we had to bring our A-game,” he said after being named player of the match. “We are really good on attack, we can always score goals, but our mindset in this game and games to come is definitely defence, defence, defence, we’ve tried to work on that.” Australia and Namibia played out a thrilling 5-5 draw to wrap up the group stages. With seven minutes remaining the Aussies were leading by two and had an air of control about them. Namibia fought hard to level the scores by the 37th minute, only to drop behind again a minute later. With their quarterfinal dreams hanging by a thread they dug deep for an equaliser in the 39th minute, and very nearly snatched an outright win at the death. The draw means both teams advance at Argentina’s expense. Matthew Hotchkis, playing in his fourth FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup, was named the player of the match for Australia and said: “We knew they were going to come at us, and to their credit their press put us under pressure… So it was harder when there was no space but yeah, we do our best to keep our mindset calm. It was just a genuine contest in the end and it was good fun.” Earlier in the evening, two-time defending champions Austria found themselves trailing against hosts Croatia before recovering to win 4-2. The home side went ahead in the second minute and it took the Austrians nearly 20 minutes to get their nose in front. Belgium took a while to find their feet in their 7-2 win over Trinidad & Tobago, but they got cracking in the final quarter, scoring four goals to remain unbeaten in the pool stages. Philippe Simar found the back of the net four more times to stay top of the pack with 14 goals from three games. The player of the match was Belgium’s Tanguy Zimmer who said: “We learn from these games… I hope that tomorrow we’ll play a game full gas, one hundred percent.” Friday’s men’s quarterfinal clashes will see Germany taking on Poland, South Africa facing Iran, Belgium coming up against Namibia and Austria playing Australia. In the women’s tournament, Namibia face Austria, Czechia take on the United States, Germany play Thailand and Poland are up against Belgium in a bid to reach Saturday’s semifinals. 6 February 2025 Results Men Result: Match 15 (M) Poland 2 – 5 South Africa Player of the match: Mustapha Cassiem (RSA) Umpires: Sean Edwards (ENG), Ana Ortega (ESP) Result: Match 16 (M) Austria 4 – 2 Croatia Player of the match: Fabian Unterkircher (AUT) Umpires: Emily Carroll (AUS), Ben Goentgen (GER) Result: Match 17 (M) Belgium 7 – 2 Trinidad & Tobago Player of the match: Tanguy Zimmer (BEL) Umpires: Kristy Robertson (AUS), Rachel Williams (ENG) Result: Match 18 (M) Namibia 5 – 5 Australia Player of the match: Matthew Hotchkis (AUS) Umpires: Melina Illanes (ARG), Michelle Meister (GER) Women Result: Match 15 (W) Austria 1 – 2 Thailand Player of the match: Somlak Suttiprapa (THA) Umpires: Michael Pontus (BEL), Zeke Newman (AUS) Result: Match 16 (W) Poland 4 – 2 South Africa Player of the match: Daria Skoraszewska (POL) Umpires: Pieter Hembrecht (NED), Ivona Makar (CRO) Result: Match 17 (W) Australia 2 – 0 New Zealand Player of the match: Annelyse Tevant (AUS) Umpires: Ayden Shrives (RSA), Salman (INA) Result: Match 18 (W) Namibia 1 – 8 Germany Player of the match: Philin Bolle (GER) Umpires: Abby Macarthur (WAL), Lukasz Zwierzchowski (POL) All images: ©FIH/WorldSportPics

05 Feb, 2025 Several teams secured their tickets to the quarterfinals on the third day of action at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Poreč, Croatia on Wednesday. Austria’s men, who secured their playoff spot a day earlier, will be joined by Belgium, Iran, and Germany, while in the women’s event Germany, Namibia and Belgium advanced to join Czechia in the final eight. The Belgian men made sure of their place with an emphatic 7-3 win over Australia. It was joint player of the match performances from skipper Phillippe Simar, who bagged all seven goals, and goalkeeper Romain Henet who produced three brilliant saves, that denied Australia any momentum in the match. Simar said afterwards: “That was a top performance with seven goals against the main team of the pool, so yeah, I pushed goals but Romain had a really good game, he saved three or four really, really good saves at good moments so that’s the most important thing today.” Belgium’s women followed their men into the quarterfinals after a 1-1 draw with the United States. A beaming Margaux Coudron was named player of the match and said: “The USA is really a tough team so we knew it wasn’t easy, but we managed the game. It was not the nicest game to watch because it was slow but we knew that a draw was enough so we kept calm.” Iran’s men, bronze medallists in 2023, progressed after prevailing 3-0 in their tricky clash with Malaysia. “All of the team and all of the players worked hard for this game. This game was very important for us and I give this honour to our players,” said player of the match Sajjad Mamizadeh afterwards. The German men advanced with an 8-2 win in a heated encounter against Argentina. The Argentinians desperately wanted a win to avoid the permutations involved in determining the two non-automatic places in the quarterfinals and found themselves trailing by just one goal towards the end of the third quarter. Things fell apart quickly though as they conceded two penalty strokes and a soft goal from a poor pass across the goalmouth. Player of the match Ben Hasbach did most of the damage with his five goals for Germany and said afterwards: “We started very bad, but we came in the second half very good into the game, we scored our goals, and we’re happy to be in the quarterfinals with three wins.” Meanwhile, there was another heavy defeat for Australia as Germany’s women cruised to a 7-0 win over the team ranked one place above them in the world. The victory saw the Germans booking their quarterfinal spot with skipper Fenja Poppa named the player of the match. “I’m really happy that we won the second game. We scored a lot of goals and I’m really proud of the team,” she said. The Namibian women also advance after trouncing New Zealand 7-0, so recording their first ever back-to-back wins at an FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup. Thrilled player of the match Kiana-Ché Cormack said afterwards: “It really feels amazing. I mean, we’ve ticked our first box, one of our goals was to come top two in our pool, and so now we can just go and play against Germany.” In other action, already-qualified Czechia’s women extended their unbeaten record, finishing the pool stage with a comfortable 4-1 win over hosts Croatia while Namibia’s men remain in contention for a quarterfinal place after a strong finish in their 6-3 win over Trinidad and Tobago. The United States women can only watch the permutations play out on Thursday to see whether they will advance. 5 February 2025 Results Men Result: Match 11 (M) Namibia 6 – 3 Trinidad & Tobago Player of the match: Pieter Jacobs (NAM) Umpires: Ben Goentgen (GER), Kristy Robertson (AUS) Result: Match 12 (M) Australia 3 – 7 Belgium Player of the match: Romain Henet & Philippe Simar (BEL) Umpires: Ana Ortega (ESP), Pieter Hembrecht (NED) Result: Match 13 (M) Iran 3 – 0 Malaysia Player of the match: Sajjad Mamizadeh (IRI) Umpires: Michelle Meister (GER), Michael Pontus (BEL) Result: Match 14 (M) Argentina 2 – 8 Germany Player of the match: Ben Hasbach (GER) Umpires: Zeke Newman (AUS), Lukasz Zwierzchowski (POL) Women Result: Match 11 (W) Namibia 7 – 0 New Zealand Player of the match: Kiana-Ché Cormack (NAM) Umpires: Sean Edwards (ENG), Emily Carroll (AUS) Result: Match 12 (W) Germany 7 – 0 Australia Player of the match: Fenja Poppe (GER) Umpires: Abby Macarthur (WAL), Salman (INA) Result: Match 13 (W) United States 1 – 1 Belgium Player of the match: Margaux Coudron (BEL) Umpires: Ivona Makar (CRO), Ayden Shrives (RSA) Result: Match 14 (W) Czechia 4 – 1 Croatia Player of the match: Natálie Nováková (CZE) Umpires: Melina Illanes (ARG), Rachel Williams (ENG) All images: ©FIH/WorldSportPics

04 Feb, 2025 There was plenty more excitement on the second day of the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Poreč, Croatia on Tuesday, with some teams starting to lock in their quarterfinal places while others worked desperately to keep their tournament aspirations alive. Another 70 goals were scored across the 10 matches, taking the tournament tally to 177 from 22 matches in total. Two-time defending men’s champions Austria had to dig deep for their 8-6 win in a fiery encounter against South Africa. Mustapha Cassiem posted another four goals for the South Africans to shoot to the top of the tournament statistics. Austria trailed for most of the match and only snuck ahead in the final quarter. Fülöp Losonci grabbed three goals on his way to being named as the player of the match for Austria and said afterwards: “We exactly knew what they wanted to play and we had a plan, but we started with it too late so they scored two quick goals. But I think we reacted really well, we showed them that we are here.” In the corresponding women’s fixture, Austria proved far too good for South Africa and their 10-0 win boosts them to the top of their pool with a useful goal difference. Katharina Bauer grabbed a hat-trick on the night while Johanna Czech was named player of the match. Comparing the match to their draw a day earlier against Poland, Czech explained: “I think we had a little switch in our head, it was a completely different game, we were totally on from the beginning, that was very much different from yesterday.” Meanwhile, the Czechian women continued their winning form on Tuesday. Currently ranked second in the world, they booked their quarterfinal spot with an impressive 6-2 win against Belgium. Adéla Lehovcová was named player of the match and said: “We feel really good. It was a tough game but we worked really hard and we’re so happy.” Poland’s women ground out an essential 1-0 win over Thailand, scoring early and holding possession for long periods to deny the Thai side any real momentum in the match. A win or even draw against South Africa on Thursday would see Poland safely through to the quarterfinals. After a dominant 12-4 victory over Malaysia in their opener on Monday, Germany’s men extended their impressive run with a comfortable 8-3 win over Iran and currently top their pool. Captain Anton Boeckel received the player of the match award and said afterwards: “I think we had everything under control, didn’t allow much, so quite happy with that.” Argentina’s men came from behind to record a critical 5-2 win over debutants Malaysia, but it needed two Argentinian goals in the final 90 seconds to secure their first win. Argentina’s Juan Eleicegui was named the player of the match and said: “We are very happy for this victory, we needed this match.” Debutants and hosts Croatia had their dreams of progressing to the quarterfinals dashed. The men went down 7-2 to Poland, conceding a flurry of late goals after substituting their goalkeeper to chase a result. Gracjan Jarzyński bagged five goals in his player-of-the-match performance for Poland. Later in the evening, Croatia’s women lost 6-3 to the United States, who now face Belgium in a must-win match on Wednesday. 4 February 2025 Results Men Result: Match 7 (M) Argentina 5 – 2 Malaysia Player of the match: Juan Eleicegui (ARG) Umpires: Ben Goentgen (GER), Ivona Makar (CRO) Result: Match 8 (M) Germany 8 – 3 Iran Player of the match: Anton Boeckel (GER) Umpires: Rachel Williams (ENG), Ayden Shrives (RSA) Result: Match 9 (M) South Africa 6 – 8 Austria Player of the match: Fülöp Losonci (AUT) Umpires: Lukasz Zwierzchowski (POL), Michael Pontus (BEL) Result: Match 10 (M) Poland 8 – 2 Croatia Player of the match: Gracjan Jarzyński (POL) Umpires: Sean Edwards (ENG), Melina Illanes (ARG) Women Result: Match 7 (W) Poland 1 – 0 Thailand Player of the match: Monika Chmiel (POL) Umpires: Zeke Newman (AUS), Ana Ortega (ESP) Result: Match 8 (W) South Africa 0 – 10 Austria Player of the match: Johanna Czech (AUT) Umpires: Kristy Robertson (AUS), Salman (INA) Result: Match 9 (W) United States 6 – 3 Croatia Player of the match: Erin Matson (USA) Umpires: Pieter Hembrecht (NED), Emily Carroll (AUS) Result: Match 10 (W) Belgium 2 – 6 Czechia Player of the match: Adéla Lehovcová (CZE) Umpires: Michelle Meister (GER), Abby Macarthur (WAL) Source: FIH.hockey