DIARY: MAY 21
DIARY: MAY 21
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May 21 |
Day 2 of competition with the beginning of the men's games. Even though they played in the morning, the top teams were wide awake: Australia hammered Poland 8-0 and Pakistan had no problem beating Malaysia 7-2. After some trouble with his Federation, Shabaz Senior, Captain of the 1994 World Champions, is back in the Pakistani Team and showed some of his talent, much to the appreciation of a crowd of connoisseurs which "oohed" and "aahed" with pleasure.
The English women probably learned the lesson from the first Dutch game and were unimpressed by their superior technical skills; they just played their solid game and took the lead twice thanks to a well tuned penalty corner. Holland scored twice (and missed a stroke!..) in the last seven minutes to win, but it was a bit too close for the crowd.  Holland finally scored in the 24th minute, much to the relief of the crowd, which was starting to look at the guys in red with interest and even respect. A fancy technical move by Rob Short even drew applause from the crowd before Marek Gacek silenced the stadium in the 45th minute with a goal which brought to their feet the handful of Canadian fans and most of the "neutral" ones! A group of South Africans behind me asked for Canadian flags to wave (on the condition I go and cheer for their team tomorrow!).  Crowded circle in front of Mike Mahood
1-1 and 25 minutes to go. The Canadians were not letting down. A diving shot
by Peter Milkovich
missed the goal by an inch while in the back
Mike Mahood
stopped a Dutch break away one on one. The Dutch were getting more and more
annoyed, arguing a bit between themselves and with the umpires. They
finally scored on a penalty corner (boring but efficient) before settling the
score at 3-1 with 4 minutes to go.
The men in red had certainly earned the right to do a lap around the field accompanied by the applause of this huge crowd of connoisseurs! As Coach Shiaz Virjee put it at the post-game press conference "They showed that they could play with the best teams in the world!" Late Thursday night, hundreds of fans and volunteers were still celebrating
in the huge tents set-up around the stadium, dancing to live bands and keeping
the beer pumps busy. A very colorful crowd, those not sporting the national
orange color are wearing a volunteer shirt (each function has a different color)
or their club jacket. Everybody was happy with the double victory of the Dutch
Teams but, knowing these Dutch people, they were most certainly just as happy
to have seen a great day of hockey.
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F.H.C. Menu
'98 World Cup Menu
Around lunchtime, the crowd in the main stadium was treated to a classic game between
Germany-India: the fitness and methodical organization of Germany against the
fine stick work and flashiness of India. Germany had no problem but the crowd didn't
hesitate to let them know on which side they were, cheering loudly the rushes
and magical stick work of the Indian forwards led by Dhanraj Pillay.
The interesting thing is that the crowd didn't come for that game: most of them
came a few hours early to secure a good seat in the general seating area for
the big games of the day: Holland vs. England (women) followed by
Holland vs. Canada (men). A lot of kids (today is a vacation
in Europe) all dressed in orange and already rehearsing shouts borrowed from
the Manchester United soccer fans:
"OOH! AAH! NE! DER! LAND! OOH! AAH! NEDERLAND!"
CANADIAN CORNER !
