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
