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Netherlands reach semi-finals despite loss

AP , NEW DELHI
Thursday, Mar 11, 2010, Page 18

The Netherlands’ Billy Bakker, center, vies for the ball with South Korea’s Kim Young-jin, left, and Nam Hyun-woo during their match in New Delhi on Tuesday. PHOTO: EPA

Two-time defending champion Germany defeated New Zealand 5-2 to top Pool A and set up a semi-final today against England.

The Dutch will meet Pool B winner Australia.

The Netherlands and South Korea finished level on 10 points from five matches, but the Dutch had a superior goal difference.

“The result was not to our liking, but we’re still happy to be in the semi-finals,” Netherlands coach Michel van den Heuvel said.

South Korea, the Asian champion, needed to win by two goals to reach their third successive World Cup semis. “It’s an emotional moment for us that we’re not in the semi-finals,” South Korea captain Seo Jong-ho said. “We drew with Germany and beat the Dutch, and still we’re not in the semi-finals. Maybe we need to make our own luck.”

Teun de Nooijer set up Ronald Brouwer to score after just 25 seconds for the Netherlands. South Korea hit back just before halftime with Nam Hyun-woo’s penalty corner. Two minutes after the interval, Wouter Jolie cleared a rebound shot off the Dutch goalline, but there was nobody to save goalkeeper Guus Vogels in the 45th when Yoon Sung-hoon passed to Seo to hit into an empty net.

The one-goal deficit was good enough for the Dutch to qualify, but they spent the last five minutes putting severe pressure on the Koreans.

Germany led 3-0 until New Zealand scored twice in three minutes with 16 minutes to go. Then two penalty corner goals in the last seven minutes ensured that Germany advanced with its biggest win over the Black Sticks at the World Cup.

“The second half was close and there came a turning point when New Zealand scored two goals,” Germany coach Markaus Weise said.

“I felt as if the New Zealand goals happened in 10 seconds, and anything could have happened at that time. We started to feel shaky, but did not fall in the end. Luckily we scored two quick goals to decide the match in our favor,” Weise said.

Christoph Menke opened the scoring by deflecting in a left cross from Florian Fuchs in the 15th minute, then Fuchs was on target in the 28th following a penalty corner for a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Philip Witte made it 3-0 with an opportunistic strike in the 47th, but New Zealand then rallied through open-play strikes by Shea McAleese and Nicholas Wilson.

Germany spiked any chance of New Zealand’s resurgence lasting with two goals in successive minutes from Moritz Furste (63rd) and Matthias Witthaus (64th).

Argentina defeated Canada 4-2 to finish fourth in the pool behind South Korea. Argentina led 3-0, Canada scored twice in the last 10 minutes, but Tomas Argento scored in the last minute to send Argentina into the seventh-eighth playoff against India.

South Korea will meet Spain for fourth-fifth, New Zealand and South Africa for ninth-10th, and Canada and Pakistan for 11th-12th.

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