In Pool A at the women’s field hockey World Cup on Friday, Germany added a 4-1 loss to India’s record of three losses, Australia suffered their first tournament defeat at the hands of the Netherlands 4-1 and Japan drew 2-2 with New Zealand to give them each their first point of the tournament.
India was competitive in the first half, matching Eileen Hoffmann’s rebound goal of Tina Bachmann’s penalty corner flick with a fourth goal of the tournament for 16 year old Rani Rampal who has scored in all India’s matches.
Maike Soeckel tipped in Hoffmann’s cross just before the break to have Germany ahead 2-1 at the break.
PHOTO: AFP
“Our problem is that we are losing our way in the second half,” India coach Sandeep Somesh said.
Germany found holes in India’s midfield and defense in the second half as India conceded a penalty stroke to Natascha Keller and a field goal by Lydia Haase.
Germany coach Michael Behrman was satisfied with three wins at the start of the tournament.
PHOTO: AFP
“Our aim was to win the matches against the teams which are behind us in the world rankings and with this win it has set us up for the last two matches in the pool against Netherlands and Australia,” Behrmann said.
Somesh believes other teams may be working out how to defeat India after the half-time break.
“It is a bit of both losing our way and other teams figuring out how to win against us in the second half,” Somesh said.
Three Maartje Paumen penalty corners for Netherlands and Minke Smeets field goal put Australia’s hopes of a semi-final berth under a cloud.
Nicole Arrold converted Australia’s first penalty corner after Paumen’s first goal, but Paumen scored again before the break.
Australia coach Frank Murray conceded Paumen made the difference.
“We gave away three soft penalty corners for Paumen to convert and Smeets goal was just messy defense in the circle, but we had long periods when Australia played very well and I think we had more shots on goal than Netherlands,” Murray said.
Dutch coach Herman Kruis gave muted praise to Paumen.
“We are pleased she can be on target and that is what she does best,” Kruis said.
Australia needs to beat New Zealand and Germany to be assured of a semi-finals place.
New Zealand and Japan took their first tournament point with the 2-2 draw.
Goals by Japan’s Kaori Chiba and Mie Nakashima seemed to put the result out of New Zealand’s reach, but the Kiwi’s dug deep to equalize with goals by Krystal Forgesson and Kyla Sharland within three minutes of Nakashima’s goal.
New Zealand coach Mark Hager praised the fightback.
“It is a credit to our girls that they could fight back but it is getting frustrating that we have to fight back in games rather than getting out in front and being able to hold on to the lead,” Hager said.
In Pool B matches on Friday, held over from Thursday’s washout of all matches, South Africa succumbed 4-1 to China’s finely honed skills to give China their first tournament win from three matches, South Korea and England drew 1-1 and Argentina eased over Spain 4-0 to stay at the head of Pool B.
In Pool B matches yesterday, England meet South Africa, South Korea face Spain and Argentina face England.
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