Athens - The South African men's hockey team must surely be doubting there is a Guardian Angel above as, for a second game in a row, they have walked off the fields of the Olympic Hockey Centre, the losers, when they should have been celebrating victory.
The history books will show that they lost 3-2 to second ranked Holland, but the result was far from a fair reflection of the game.
They controversially had a goal awarded against them that replays showed should not have been, then they had two penalty corners awarded after the hooter had gone, which they could not convert into goals.
Stevan Evans scored a stunning back-stick goal, the first for South Africa in the sixteenth minute, and then Ian Symons put them 2-0 ahead six minutes later from a perfectly executed penalty corner variation.
Holland then replied in controversial circumstances when Geert-Jan Derikx converted from a penalty corner, which umpire Jing Soo Han from Korea at first overruled.
However, after mass protestation from the Dutch players, Han consulted with his fellow umpire, Jason McCracken from New Zealand and the goal was awarded.
The South Africans went into the break with a 2-1 lead.
Teun de Nooijer made it two apiece twelve minutes into the second half and then Karel Klaver drove the final nail home with two minutes to spare.
Tense atmosphere
The aggression between the two teams continued after the game, when a Dutch match official dragged the SA captain Craig Jackson away while being interviewed by a TV journalist.
He had ruled that the pitch needed to cleared for the next match, however, an interview was being conducted with four Dutch players, which he refused to interrupt.
An Athens Olympic Broadcast (AOB) official protested and the Dutch official then flashed a sign at one of the South African journalists.
For a few moments the atmosphere was tense, before officials on both sides calmed things down.
"It is heartbreaking but that is sport, sometimes you get dealt a hand that you do not like, it is a pity we did not get something from the last two penalty corners," Evans lamented. "We had some quality chances but didn't convert them, we knew that playing against Holland early in the morning didn't suit them."
Craig Fulton was understandably disappointed with the result. "The couple of dubious calls cost us, they didn't want to be here, we managed to get inside their heads for a change. We committed everything to this game, we did not loose one 50/50 ball today".
"If the Dutch woke up this morning thinking they could walk over us, they got a surprise," added captain Craig Jackson.
Coach Paul Revington was also surprised with the controversial goal. "I will have to look at the video before I commit myself but I am surprised that he changed his decision, it could have been pressure from the players. We now have three goals from three games but we have scored six goals. On Saturday we will have another go at a team ranked higher than us".
