The Belgium Red Lions dominated South Africa 9-4 in their third game of the men’s hockey tournament, in Group B on Tuesday at the Tokyo Olympics
The Red Lions, who found Tom Boon, opened the scoring in the 4th minute thanks to John-John Dohmen (1-0). The South Africans immediately equalized by Dayaan Cassiem (1-1, 5th).
Alexander Hendrickx (2-1, 9th) restored the advantage to the Olympic champions from a penalty corner. In the process, Thomas Briels (3-1, 12th), Arthur van Doren (4-1, 14th), for his 200th match for the national team, and again Dohmen (5-1, 15th) allowed the Belgians to take the wide from the first quarter.
The Belgian festival continued with a new pc by Hendrickx (6-1, 18th) and a production by Simon Gougnard (7-2, 25th). Between these two goals, Mustapha Cassiem (7-1, 23rd) scored the second South African goal. The two teams returned to the locker room with a score of 7-3 after the goal of Nqobile Ntuli (29th).
Dayaan Cassiem (7-4, 31st) reduced the gap at the start of the second period, but Hendrickx (8-4, 40th), still on pc, and Cédric Charlier (9-4, 41st) gave back a five-goal advantage to the Belgians. The score was no longer changing.
Victorious over the Netherlands and Germany by the same score, 1-3, the Red Lions sign a third success in a row, which allows them to remain at the top of the group with 9 points. Germany and Great Britain follow with 6. The Netherlands, who meet Canada later, have 3. Canada and South Africa are stuck at 0.
The top four from each of the two groups advance to the quarter-finals.
The Red Lions will return to the field on Thursday (3am Belgian time) to face Canada in their fourth and penultimate match of this group stage, which they will finish on Friday (2.15pm) against Great Britain.
