{"id":80316,"date":"2025-08-14T05:58:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T03:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=80316"},"modified":"2025-08-14T05:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T03:58:20","slug":"south-africa-u17a-scores-second-successive-win-over-zimbabwe-u18a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=80316","title":{"rendered":"South Africa u17A scores second successive win over Zimbabwe u18A"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_80318\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-80318\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-80318\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-13-at-8.56.58-PM-2-b-400x243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"243\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-80318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">South Africa u17A produced a solid performance on their way to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Zimbabwe u18A in the Allistar Fredericks Africa Challenge on Wednesday, 13 August 2025. Photo: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TeamphotoSA\/\">TeamPhotoSA<\/a><\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>South Africa u17A<\/strong> carbon copied <a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/sa-u17-girls-dominate-zimbabwe-u18-in-4-0-victory\/\"><strong>their result from Tuesday<\/strong><\/a>, when they cantered to a comfortable 4-0 victory over <strong>Zimbabwe u18A<\/strong> in their <strong>Allistar Fredericks Africa Challenge<\/strong> contest at <strong>St David\u2019s Marist<\/strong> <strong>Inanda<\/strong>, in Sandton, on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>The win gave the hosts a 2-0 lead in the four-match series, which they&#8217;re using as part of their preparation for the annual <strong>Dato Mirnawan Cup<\/strong>, to be played in Malaysia in November.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we definitely improved from yesterday,&#8221;\u00a0<strong>Omari Pienaar-Geyer<\/strong>, the SA u17A coach, told<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SchoolofHockey\/\"><strong> SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a>. &#8220;I am so excited to see what we can do tomorrow with a few more tweaks and combos,&#8221; <b><\/b><\/p>\n<p>South Africa aimed to pick up from where they left off on Tuesday and quickly asserted themselves, enjoying the lion&#8217;s share of the possession. However, that advantage failed to translate into a goal in the face of a stubborn Zimbabwean defensive effort, despite several circle entries from the home team.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Zimbabwe almost took the lead, against the run of play, in the latter part of the second chukka when <strong>Joice Mandozana<\/strong> received a through-pass that put her in a one-on-one with <strong>Annika Kloppers<\/strong>, in goal for South Africa. Mandozana, though, was unable to get a shot off, although South Africa conceded a short corner.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Girls&amp;apos; Hockey - u16 South Africa vs u16 Zimbabwe - Allistar Fredericks Challenge - 13 August 2025\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GZoKyzANh4Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a slow start, but our fundamentals improved, and our tactical play and playing together got better,&#8221; Pienaar-Geyer said.<\/p>\n<p>Three minutes later, South Africa made the visitors pay dearly for missing their goal scoring opportunity. After a couple of re-awards of a penalty corner, they went the direct route, and <strong>Jemma Ferreira<\/strong> unfurled a flick to goalkeeper <strong>Janelle Wightman<\/strong>&#8216;s left, which ricocheted off the stick of the player on the post and into the back of the goalbox.<\/p>\n<p>That goal raised Ferreira&#8217;s tally to three goals in the tournament after she struck twice on Tuesday, with those two also coming from penalty corner conversions.<\/p>\n<p>Three minutes later, South Africa made 2-0 when <strong>Jamie da Silva<\/strong> drilled the ball into the back of the net off South Africa\u2019s sixth penalty corner.<\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe started the third chukka brightly, enjoying long attacking phases in the early going. However, the core of South Africa\u2019s defence, <strong>Katherine Sickle<\/strong>, <strong>Ella Bowyer<\/strong>, and Ferreira, held firm and frustrated the visitors.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, South Africa had reestablished control. They had Zimbabwe chasing shadows as they strung together passes, moving the ball smartly in their own half before attacking with flair in the opposition&#8217;s half.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the last chukka, we really stepped up our aggression in the press to turn over the ball. With most of the ball possession, we need to keep a solid structure at the back,&#8221; Pienaar-Geyer explained.<\/p>\n<p>While South Africa&#8217;s aggressive pressing caused headaches for the visitors, it wasn&#8217;t the source of the home side&#8217;s third goal. That came from an intercept by <strong>Timari Jonker <\/strong>close to the halfway line. After briefly carrying the ball forward, she picked out <strong>Sarah-Ellen Groenewald<\/strong>, who cut left and then fired a sweetly-struck tomahawk past the Zimbabwe &#8216;keeper with six minutes remaining in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Her goal put the game out of Zimbabwe\u2019s reach. However, the hosts were not done yet. They grabbed their fourth from a penalty corner, with the captain <strong>Phillipa Viljoen<\/strong> converting from the second castle.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa has another date with Zimbabwe&#8217;s u18A side on Thursday at 17:00. While coach Pienaar-Geyer is not focused on the scoreline, she is hoping to see a more clinical performance from her team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our biggest focus is to keep getting better. Every match is a chance to improve,&#8221; Pienaar-Geyer said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Result<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>South Africa u17A: 4<\/strong> (Jemma Ferreira, Jamie Da Silva, Sarah-Ellen Groenewald, Phillipa Viljoen). <strong>Zimbabwe u18A: 0<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<strong>South Africa u16A: 7<\/strong>. <strong>Zimbabwe u16A: 0.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa u17A carbon copied their result from Tuesday, when they cantered to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Zimbabwe u18A in their Allistar Fredericks Africa Challenge contest at St David\u2019s Marist Inanda, in Sandton, on Wednesday evening. The win gave the hosts a 2-0 lead in the four-match series, which they&#8217;re using as part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":80318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}