DIARY: MAY 27
DIARY: MAY 27
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May 27 |
Day 8 of competition The day started with rain, very heavy at times, and even thunder. Maybe the Gods of hockey were a bit upset with the controversy surrounding Pakistani umpire Irfan Zaidi. The Tournament Director stated that he showed a "weak" performance in the India-Korea match, in which he awarded Korea one penalty corner after another. Korea won the match (4-3) by converting yet another corner given in the dying second of the game and there was even further debate that it was awarded after the final buzzer! The T.D. (German Heinz Woltje) further stated that "the fact that a Pakistani umpire was appointed on an Indian match is not a point of discussion, a top umpire must be able to put politics aside. He apparently couldn't handle the pressure on him which resulted in a poor performance". Yesterday was a full day, with… 9 matches! On the men's side, teams from pool "B" played the fourth round. Logic prevailed and the top teams are now obviously thinking ahead to the play-offs: Pakistan beat Poland (3-1), Spain beat Malaysia (3-0) and Australia beat an uninspired England (3-0). Australia, Spain and Pakistan are still in a position to qualify. Spain plays Poland and should have no problem; the second qualified team will be decided by an explosive Australia-Pakistan match on Thursday! The women wrapped up the pool play. There again, the top team seemed to hold back before the play-off. But even holding back, Australia scored 5 goals against South Africa. The "Hockeyroos" played in their alternate color, a bluish gray, rather boring compared to their usual gold and green one-piece suit! In this group, the position is clear at the top, with Australia and Germany qualified for the semi-finals. Below that, three teams have 6 points, but South Africa and USA make it to the 5-8 play-off on goal difference while Scotland goes to the 9-12 play-off with China. The 5-8 play-off is very important: the top 6 teams in this World Cup are automatically qualified for the next one while all the other teams will need to go through a qualifying tournament. In pool "B", the hierarchy is even more clearly established, with Holland and Argentina already qualified and battling… to avoid Australia in the semi-final. This show-down was the Game of the Day yesterday, with the sun miraculously back to warm up the crowd and lift the spirits of the two teams. They treated the crowd to a brilliant game of offensive hockey! Both teams are very fit, fast, technically sound and not too rigidly organized (relatively speaking!) and the game flowed back and forth during 70 minutes, with only one penalty corner whistled.
Holland went up 2-0 but Argentina let the reins loose on their flashy attackers in the second half and Karina MASOTTA then Vanina ONETO leveled the score with 10 minutes to go, resulting in an exciting end of game which kept the crowd shouting and on the edge of their seats until the end.
With a better goal difference, Holland will play Germany in the semi-final while Argentina has the less enviable fate off playing Australia. Lower in the pool, New Zealand overtook England for the 5-8 play-off with a 2-1 win. England had the misfortune to have three of their top players injured early in the tournament, including veteran Karen BROWN who has anchored their defense 138 times before this World Cup On Thursday, pool play wraps up on the men's side, with some vital games: Australia-Pakistan in pool "B" and the ever so important India-Canada in pool A. The winner will most certainly finish 3rd in the group, since Korea against Germany and New Zealand against Holland will most likely lose, and qualify for the 5-8 play-off. Canada has never finished better than 10th at the World Cup!
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For more information:
fhc@fieldhockey.ca
F.H.C. Menu
'98 World Cup Menu
I was sitting next to two young Dutch girls, about 12 years old, dressed up in orange
from head to toe, face painted, orange rattle going non stop and all. One of
them (from what I could understand with my limited Dutch) was doing a running
commentary of the play, pointing to the field to what they "could" have done.
They seemed to know the names of all the players. Their favorite one was #15,
striker Fleur van de KIEFT, and they were completely over the moon when she
scored the first Dutch goal.
CANADIAN CORNER !
