15-12-2009 SA Men Finish 5th at Champions Challenge in Salta, Argentina
China who are ranked 13 th in the world, faced 70 minutes of torment today! Vincent Prior made his debut in goal for us today, and was called upon in early minutes of the match when China performed a well drilled short corner variation. Vincent made an unbelievable save to his left hand side, to stop the Chinese from taking an early lead.

Our first goal came in the 8 th minute, Wade Paton hit a back stick shot from the top left of the circle which may have been going in, but Thornton Macdade made sure, giving it the slightest of touches past the keepers right foot. Julian Hykes scored his first of the tournament to put us two in front of a tiring Chinese team.

We moved the ball exceptionally well today, often linking over fifteen passes together and we looked in complete control. I think the biggest improvement was our decision making. We showed good patience in our build up, not forcing anything which was 100%.

Half time score 2-0.

We have struggled all week to put two good halves of hockey together, but today we really came close to performing well for the full seventy minutes. Our two corner specialist scored in the second half, Justin Reid-Ross scoring from a penalty corner and Gareth Carr scored from a baseline entry on the right hand side, slapping the ball in from an acute angle.

Proceedings were finished off by Austin Smith to make it 5-0.

5 th place although lower than we hoped is still three places higher than where our ranking would have placed us. If we look back we know that first half against Pakistan really cost us a chance of finishing inside the top 4 with the chance of winning a medal.

Having said that, to go on and win our final two playoff matches is something which we have not been able to do in recent years. It shows this groups intent, and with some more fine tuning I think we will have a real shot at getting some big results in New Delhi next year at the World Cup.

Final Score 5-0 (win)

How did things finish for the rest? These are the final standings for the 2009 Champions Challenge.

1 st ? New Zealand (promotion into Champions Trophy)
2 nd ? Pakistan
3 rd ? India
4 th ? Argentina
5 th ? South Africa
6 th ? China
7 th ? Belgium
8 th ? Canada (relegated to Champions Challenge II)