{"id":42806,"date":"2026-08-17T08:24:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42806"},"modified":"2026-08-17T08:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:24:49","slug":"sa-suffer-3-1-defeat-to-spain-in-hockey-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-suffer-3-1-defeat-to-spain-in-hockey-world-cup-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"SA suffer 3-1 defeat to Spain in Hockey World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The South African (SA) men\u2019s national hockey team opened their 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup campaign with a 3-1 defeat to Spain in Pool C on Sunday afternoon in Belgium.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The opening half was challenging for SA, with Spain scoring twice in quick succession.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">However, SA managed to recover in the second half, showcasing a strong performance.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">While the final score line favoured the European side, a spirited second-half resurgence from the SA citizens provided a solid foundation to build upon for the remainder of the tournament.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":42807,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-42806","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA hockey team opened their 2026 Hockey World Cup campaign with  3-1 defeat","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42808,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42806\/revisions\/42808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}