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Hockey World Cup : Semifinals places decided
Germany, the Netherlands, Korea and New Zealand were all in with a chance of a semi-final place at the start of day 10 in the men' hockey world cup. In the end it was the Europeans that prevailed, but not without a few surprises along the way.England will now play Germany on Thursday, and the Dutch will play the group A winners Australia. Argentina also secured an unexpected fourth place in group B, a last second goal giving them a better goal difference than the Kiwis.
Netherlands and Germany held the qualifying positions in the group at the start of the day and with Germany disposing of New Zealand 5-2 and the Dutch taking an early lead against Korea, the likely line-up was England v Holland, Germany v Australia. The Dutch however squandered the lead provided by Ronald Brouwer in the first 30 seconds to lose 2-1
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Lee Nam Yong equalised with a rocket penalty corner drag four minutes before half-time and took the lead with a typical 75-yard attack ending with Seo Jong Ho slotting home in the 45th minute.
Geert-Jan Derikx was guilty of the worst miss of the world cup so far, sliding the ball wide of the left post from two yards with the goal open. Taeke Taekema also missed with a Dutch corner after the clock had run out.
The loss meant the Dutch ceded the top place in the group to Germany but the Koreans could have tipped them out of the semi-finals altogether with one more goal and the Netherlands owe Guus Vogels big time for two, just-another-day-at-the-office brilliant saves.
Germany nailed down their semi-final spot in the first game of the day at the Dhyan Chand stadium, New Delhi. They wobbled slightly, letting a 3-0 lead over the Blacksticks slip to 3-2 (Shea Mcaleese PC, 51, Nick Wilson FG, 54) but two corner goals in the last ten minutes (Moritz Furste, 63, Matthias Witthaus, 64) steadied the ship.
The pick of the other goals was a diving deflection from Christoph Menke in the eleventh minute while Florian Fuchs put away a corner rebound in the 28th minute and Philip Witte scored another deflection goal in the 47th.
In the final game of the group, Argentina beat Canada 4-2 - scoring their vital last goal through Tomas Argento with less than a second to spare. Other Argentine goals were from Lucas Vila (PC,29mins), Mathias Paredes (FG, 43mins), Mario Almada (FG, 56mins). The Canadians now play Pakistan for the wooden spoon on Thursday. Scott Tupper scored from a corner for the Canucks in the 61st minute and David Jameson added a second with a reverse stick strike in the 65th minute. Argentina will now play India seventh/eighth on Friday when New Zealand will also play South Africa for ninth/10th and Spain and Korea play for fifth/sixth. blog comments powered by Disqus
