Athens - Any remote chance of earning some sort of medal in Athens 2004, effectively went out the door when the South African men's hockey team lost to 11th ranked New Zealand 4-1 at the Elliniko Olympic Hockey Centre on Monday.
The South Africans played well below par and got their lone goal from Emile Smith who latched on to a pass from top goal scorer Greg Nicol.
For the New Zealanders Dave Kosoof opened the scoring in the ninth minute, followed by a pair of converted penalty corners from Haden Shaw (38th and 46th minute) and a master slap shot from Phillip Burrows in the last minute that rattled the back boards, behind 'keeper David Staniforth.
Even though they lost all of their games, bar the single win against seventh ranked, Argentina, Craig Jackson's men can go home with their heads held high as they earned much respect from the hockey world.
Every other team in their pool were ranked higher than them, yet they where not overawed by the occasion and refused to roll over. They led both sixth-ranked India and second-ranked and double defending Olympic champions Holland by two goals.
In India's case they scored once to come back into contention and then two goals in the last minute. Against Holland the South Africans were victims of a dubious goal before the Dutch team went on to win by a solitary goal.
Coming minutes after the national rugby team beat Australia to claim the Tri-Nations title on Saturday, much was expected of our lads against the old foe from Down Under and they almost upset the apple cart again, losing 2-3 to the third-ranked Wallabies.
Captain Craig Jackson was dejected with the big loss. "Yes we deserved to lose this one. We didn't play well."
Seasoned campaigner Greg Clark summed up their situation. "We have two games left in the tournament. It all depends where Argentina end up whether we play for ninth and 10th spot or for 11th and 12th.
"We started off hoping for the middle four and the semi-finals would have been a bonus for us. But we would love to end above 10th, which wis where we finished in our last Olympics in Atlanta."
