SA Men’s Hockey team set for Olympic opener

SOUTH Africa Men’s Hockey coach Cheslin Chie is expecting “great things” from explosive forward Mustapha Cassiem, ahead of the team’s much-anticipated Olympic Games opener against the Netherlands in Paris today.

Mustapha, 22, burst onto the international hockey stage as a teenager at the last Olympics in Tokyo, three years ago.

The former Bishops schoolboy star found the back of the net three times in his maiden Olympic appearance and thrilled everyone with the partnership he formed up front with his elder brother Dayaan.

Chie knows that Mustapha is no longer an unknown force, especially as he now plays his club hockey for professional outfit HDM in the Netherlands, and will indeed be a marked man.

However, Chie believes the youngster has the talent and belief to find a way to succeed.

“Obviously, back then teams did not know who Mustapha was. Now everyone knows him, and they definitely have plans to disrupt his play as well. That’s actually something we have seen in the last three practice matches,” Chie told Independent Newspapers.

“It’s something we have discussed, about how he is going to overcome that and work within what the team needs from him. I am confident he will be able to do it and I am expecting to see some great things from him at this tournament.”

It is not only Musthapha that needs to raise his game today, but the entire South African team. The Dutch are currently ranked No 1 in the world in comparison to South Africa’s 14th place – the lowest of all teams at the Olympics.

However, the South Africans showed at the last Olympics that they can go toe-to-toe with the impressive Dutch outfit by racing into a 3-0 lead, before eventually going down 5-3.

Chie feels that South Africa’s preparations over the past 10 days – spent in Belgium, plus three warm-up matches against Argentina, New Zealand and Ireland in Paris – has set them up well for the Dutch opener.

Equally, the South Africans have worked extensively on the mental aspect of their game to cope with any situation that might arise.

“We are expecting a really tough challenge. They are ranked much higher than us, but we have some plans and hopefully we can disrupt their flow,” Chie said.

“Because once they get flowing, they become a really difficult team to play against, and hopefully we can implement those plans against them.

“The teams have changed quite a bit (since Tokyo), but I am expecting our players to give as good as they get.

“We’ve spoken about situations like that. I think we were shell-shocked when we led the last time we played against them at the Olympics.

“I know it sounds strange, but sometimes it can come as a shock. We’ve had good chats about being mentally alert and understanding the phases of the match. Everyone is ranked higher than us, but we are ready for anything that gets thrown against us.”

After the expected tough encounter against the Dutch, Chie’s team are back on the turf in just over 24 hours when they face Great Britain tomorrow (8:15pm).

SA Hockey Men’s Olympic Squad

Daniel Bell, Dayaan Cassiem, Mustapha Cassiem, Calvin Davis, Matthew Guise-Brown, Andrew Hobson, Keenan Horne, Gowan Jones, Ryan Julius, Tevin Kok, Zenani Kraai, Samkelo Mvimbi, Nqobile Ntuli, Bradley Sherwood, Nicholas Spooner, Jacques van Tonder

Start: 12:45pm v Netherlands