The South African U21 Hockey Men reignited their Quarter Final hopes with a brilliant clinical display of attacking hockey against Chile this morning. After a tough opening encounter with Belgium, the Africans knew it would be a tough encounter taking on the 2021 Pan American Championship winners Chile. The South Africans were clearly the dominant team in the early exchanges and were able to make that dominance count with a wonderful team goal finished by Idrees Abdulla in the 7th minute. Despite continued dominance South Africa were unable to add to the scoreline in the first half and were hoping they would not rue the lack of cut-throat in the opening 30. Chile started the second half with a much greater determination following some stern words from head coach Alejandro Gomez, but the foot hold they were creating in the game slipped as South African vice captain showed alert thinking to react quickest in the D and finish with a sublime strikers touch. The Chilean’s fought back immediately and pulled a goal back and reinvigorated their challenge with an Amoroso drag flick from a penalty corner that was speeding up as it flew in past Guy Morgan on the post. The Chilean Sail was gathering wind, but Cameron le Forestier popped up to tear the sail with a brilliantly orchestrated diving finish. It was a the type of goal that you spend hours training for in the hope that an opportunity like it presents itself in a game. The South Africans know that goal difference could play a part in the discussion so they kept going forward looking for another and from a penalty corner, specialist Jacques van Tonder netted his second of the tournament to make it 4-1. 4-1 became 5-1 in the final chukka as le Forestier popped up to claim his second and give the South Africans an even goal difference ahead of their final group game against Malaysia. OF course, after the result today, the boys will watch the Malaysia and Belgium game later and this will leave them knowing exactly what they need in the final group game tomorrow! Result South Africa 5-1 Chile 🎥reaction from Player Of The Match – South Africa’s Cameron le Forestier after his team’s 5-1 win over Chile at the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2021. #RisingStars #JWC2021@SA_Hockey pic.twitter.com/VTOm73i6aD — International Hockey Federation (@FIH_Hockey) November 26, 2021 Fixtures 27 November – 11:00 (SA Time) – SA vs. Malaysia

26 November 2021 Lausanne, Switzerland: Following the outbreak of a new coronavirus variant in South Africa, the International Hockey Federation (FIH), the South African Hockey Association and the North-West University of Potchefstroom have jointly decided that the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup South Africa 2021, initially planned in Potchefstroom from 5 to 16 December, will not happen under these circumstances. “The safety of everyone involved in the FIH events is an absolute priority. Additionally, many countries, including from some of the participating teams, have now strongly increased their travel restrictions with South Africa, including halting flights. Therefore, it simply isn’t possible to maintain this event as planned. This is hugely disappointing. An FIH Junior World Cup is so important for the development of young players. Also, it was the first time that an FIH World Cup was due to take place on African soil. On behalf of FIH, I’d like to thank all teams for their understanding as well as the local organisers for their great work and collaboration”, FIH CEO Thierry Weil said. FIH will keep monitoring the situation and take a decision about the potential staging of the 2021 FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup as soon as it will be possible to do so.  For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website. #RisingStars

25 November 2021 Day 2: An astonishing 70 goals were scored on the second day of action at the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021, with Spain setting a new record for goals scored at the event in a single match as the European side put 17 goals past the USA. The previous record was a 13-0 victory for India against Singapore at the 1982 Junior World Cup. Wins were recorded by Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, France and India, and an incredible display of attacking hockey in all five matches meaning no match saw fewer than eight goals rattling home, with the highest scoring matches seeing 17 goals scored. More information on the matches can be found below. Argentina 14-0 Egypt (Pool D) Argentina got their Junior World Cup campaign off to a flying start when they netted 14 times against a determined but error-prone Egypt. Los Leoncitas captain Facundo Zarate started and finished the goal-fest with a well-taken penalty corner in the third minute of the game and a calm penalty stroke in the 58th minute. What followed was a clinical display of goal scoring as Argentina showed their quality with elegant, free-flowing passing and a wide variation of goal scoring and 10 different names on the score-sheet. Coach Lucas Rey will be pleased with his team’s performance but will also be wary of the tougher test his team will face in their next encounter with Germany. A happy Facundo Zarate speaking after the match, said: “We are very happy with the result. We trained a lot to be here and achieve such a result. We stayed very focused during the entire match. For the next match, we know that Germany is a very tough opponent. So, we will be there, ready to play against them and we will see how it will be going.” “We made a lot of mistakes with passes, but we learnt a lot in this game,” said Egypt’s Khaled Elgandy. “But we kept fighting until the last minute. We will look at our performance in details and try to do better in the next match. We came here to do our best.” Netherlands 12-5 Korea (Pool C) While the Netherlands will be happy to have started with a win and to have scored an impressive 12 goals, Head Coach Michiel van der Struijk will be concerned at the defensive errors that allowed Korea to score five times in response. In Miles Bukkens, the Netherlands have found a goal-scoring supremo. The forward showed speed, flair and awareness to score five goals. However, teams will also be watching the penalty corner proficiency of Jeong Jun Seong of Korea who was unerring as he sent the ball past Flip Wijsman three times. Five goal hero Miles Bukkens said: “We played a good game but several times we got a corner against us. They scored four penalty-corners, I think, so that’s bad and we can work on it. As to me scoring five goals, I like it. That gives me some confidence, which is perfect. Before the next match, we will rest because it was hot today, drink a lot and regroup with our team.” Spain 17-0 USA (Pool C) Argentina may well have thought they had posted the top score of the day, but Spain had other ideas. USA held the European side at bay for seven minutes but then the floodgates opened. Manuel Rodriguez scored twice in the opening quarter, Guillermo Fortuno scored twice in the final minute of the game and another 13 goals were scored in between. USA worked hard throughout but they were no match for the slick passing and speed of decision-making displayed by the Junior EuroHockey champions. Gerard Clapes scored four goals for Spain. he said: “I’m very proud of the team. We played as a team. We have good feelings for the next match against the Netherlands, which is very important. As we all know they are a very, very good team, and it will be very difficult. But it’s very important to win to ensure our path into the quarter finals and, if possible, to reach the first place of the group.” USA captain Jatin Sharma spoke about the nerves that had struck his team as they took to the field: “I think coming out in the first quarter a lot of us were playing a bit with their nerves. That can happen, we all know that. Tonight, we will rewatch the game, talk about what we need to do better, get feedback from our coaches and implement that tomorrow.” France 7-1 Poland (Pool B) France continued their sparkling start to the competition with another energetic performance that put them firmly at the top of Pool B. Despite the scoreline this wasn’t a walkover as Poland defended hard and created their own chances. But France brought with them the confidence that the previous day’s victory over the host nation India had given them and they were strong and composed from the first whistle. The opening goal was within a minute of the start and a 3-0 cushion before the end of the first quarter effectively put the game beyond Poland’s reach. Corentin Sellier scored three goals for France, adding to the one he scored against India the previous day. Reflecting on the match against Poland he said: “It was important for us to be focused on this game, to put some intensity and play a good match. I’m really happy with our performance so far, both for the team and for myself. We want to continue in this competition and we will now focus on the next game.” It was a sanguine reaction from Poland’s Head Coach Jacek Adrian: “I said to my guys: ‘Well done!’. Because they tried in the second half to do something, to score more goals. It was a tough match for us. France is a very strong team. But we tried to show that we can play quite good hockey. Maybe

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