DIARY: MAY 24
DIARY: MAY 24
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May 24 |
Day 5 of competition On the women's side, the teams of Pool "A" were in action. USA resisted 29 minutes to Australia but couldn't prevent the Hockeyroos from marking another big victory (6-1). Each team has been asked to choose a short piece of music that is played immediately after a goal; the Australian women appropriately chose "You're unbelievable" and it is fast becoming the jingle of the tournament. Bill Colwill, a senior British columnist in women's hockey, states "the high work rate and commitment to an attractive style of play have made them potentially unbeatable with a squad which arguably contains five or six of the best players in the world". They have won every major tournament since (and including) the 1994 World Cup! Disappointment for South Africa who registered its second loss of the tournament. The South Africans can't seem to regain the form which made them breeze though the Qualifying Tournament in Harare. Pietie Coetzee is injured (knee) and, although scoring twice on set pieces (one penalty corner and one stroke), couldn't shake off the surveillance of the Scottish defense. Sue MacDonald scored twice for Scotland, much to the pleasure of their loud cheering section. Sue MacDonald was dropped from the British Team at the 11th hour before the Atlanta Olympics and had vowed evr since to prove herself. On the men's side, another high scoring game saw Korea overcome India 4-3. The last goal came from a penalty corner "on the buzzer" and created a bit of an uproar from the Indian contingent. India is still looking for its first point in this competition and a few millions people back home are starting to be rather upset… The Indian journalists are smoking more and more in the Press Center and, in their current state of mind, nobody is daring to point out the clearly displayed "No Smoking" signs! This last minute victory for Korea is not exactly good for Canada since a draw would have suppressed a point from the table.
The main game of the afternoon was Netherlands-Germany, a classic which once again drew a full house of orange fans. Even the stairs were packed by all the tournament volunteers wanting to catch a few minutes of play. After Pakistan-England (7-5) the day before, this was another monster of a game. The Dutch women's team seems impressed by the crowd but the men in orange obviously loved the "HOL-LAND-HOL-LAND" coming down from the stands and got off to a great start. In the 26th minute, Tycho van Meer drew the crowd to its feet with a perfect penalty corner. But it was all Holland would score for the game and Germany, very patient until then, grabbed the game in an iron fist. Suddenly, there was no more space for the orange players to run to or pass the ball. In the second half, the Dutch team seemed to spend more time explaining the rules to the umpires than concentrating on their game and Germany scored five unanswered goals: 2 field goals, 2 penalty corners and 1 last minute stroke. It could have been more with some great opportunities created by the amazing speed and wicked reverse shot of young wonder Oliver Domke.
The play of the game, although not producing a goal, drew a long appreciative ovation from the crowd: on a very hard cross from the right, Oliver Domke managed a diving reverse stick deflection which was heading for the top left corner of the goal but Dutch keeper Ronald Jansen somehow flew up there to intercept it! For Canada, the Game of the Day was of course New Zealand-Canada. More Canadian fans have arrived with the week-end (including Women's National Team players Dana Anderson, Lisa Faust and Veronica Planella) and a fairly large cheering section was anxiously waiting for the game: Canada has never won against New Zealand since 1974 (27 games) and the last two matches at the World Cup Pre-Qualifier in Sardinia (October 1996) were tied.
The Canadian players were ready and after four minutes were up 1-0 with a penalty corner from Marek Gacek. A second corner nearly hit home just after! The New Zealanders then got organized and earned a few penalty corners in a row: the defense saved two but a stroke was awarded on the third one; it was saved by Canadian goal-keeper Hari Kant! That gave another boost to the Canadians who scored shortly after on another penalty corner by Alan Brahmst.  At that time, life looked good in the Canadian group but the Kiwis quickly reduced the margin with a field goal and half time was reach on the narrow margin of 2-1.
The defense was holding tight around Alan Brahmst but the minutes on the clock seemed to go down awfully slowly… It was New Zealand's turn to take advantage of a power play: they earned a penalty corner and converted it. This was strongly contested by the Canadian players: the time was stopped and they claimed that the umpire didn't whistle the play back on before the ball was delivered. From the stands, it was clear that something went wrong: the runners had hardly left the line and New Zealand striker John Radovonich had all the time necessary to hammer a bullet…
A distressing last minute equalization… New Zealand - Canada : 3 - 3 (detail)
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In the second half, the play became quite physical and a few yellow
cards were distributed by the umpires; New Zealand received three and
was even reduced to 9 players at one point. Canada took advantage of
this unexpected "power-play" to score another penalty corner, this
time by 
At 3-1, life looked good again! Canadian forwards kept the pressure
up and were rewarded by a stroke, but unfortunately
3-2 and still 13 minutes to go… The minutes were ticking slower and
slower and the
cheers were getting louder and louder to support the team. As he so often has
done in the past 15 years,
CANADIAN CORNER !
