Australia thrashed South Africa 9-2 to top Pool A and became the third team to directly advance to the quarterfinals of the FIH Men's World Cup on Friday. Star forward Blake Govers scored four times, including from a penalty stroke to guide the team to victory. The Aussies will now face the winner of the crossover match between Malaysia and Spain in the quarterfinal game on January 24 in Bhubaneswar.
Five of the Australian goals were field efforts while three were from the penalty corners. Australia earned eight PCs as against five of the South Africans. Govers struck in the fourth, 15th, 19th and 20th minutes as the rampaging Australians led 7-1 at halftime. His first and fourth strikes were field goals while the second one was from a penalty corner and the third from the penalty spot.
Tom Craig (10th), Jake Harvie (22nd), Daniel Beale (28th), Jeremy Hayward (32nd), and Tim Brand (47th) were the other Australian goal-getters at the Birsa Munda Stadium. Ntuli Nqobile (8th) and Kok Tevin (58th) were the scorers, both field goals for South Africa.
In another Pool A match, Argentina and France scored a goal each in the final minute to play out a 5-5 draw in a dramatic contest. Argentina finished second in the pool with five points from three matches, one win, and two draws, while France ended third with four points - one win, one draw, and one loss.
Argentina will play the third-place team in Pool B in their crossover match on January 22 in Bhubaneswar while France will take on the second-place team in Pool B the next day. France thought they had won the match 5-4 after Victor Charlet scored in the final minute from the penalty stroke but Argentina equalized after a few seconds through a penalty corner.
Argentina earned four penalty corners in succession and scored from the last one to split points with France. Charlet (36th, 38th, 48th, and 60th) struck four goals for France with two coming from penalty strokes.
For Argentina, who had played out a 3-3 draw against pool topper Australia, Nicolas Della Torre (34th, 42nd, and 60th) struck a hat-trick while Keenan Nicolas (3rd) and Martin Ferreiro (51st) were the other goal scorers.
Earlier, the Netherlands and England also booked direct quarterfinal berths after topping Pool C and Pool D respectively.
