18th Women Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament
The 18th edition of the Women’s Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament is underway in Nottingham, England. The teams featuring in the prestigious event include the host nation England, defending Champions Argentina, World Champions Netherlands, Champions Challenge winners New Zealand, Olympics runners up China and Germany.
The 8-day event opened with China taking on Germany in the first game. The Asians opened the scoring in the 9th minute through Xu Xiaoxu but the lead was short lived as Hoffman equalized for Germany in the 17th minute of the game. The match hung in the balance until the 54th minute when Hoffman scored another goal from open play to give Germany the lead and eventually a well deserved victory.
In the second game of the opening day England shocked the defending champions by 2 goals to 1. Macleod drew first blood in the 12th minute to give hosts the lead. Argentina looked good to level the match but England strengthened their lead in the 53rd minute when Danson converted a penalty corner. Within minutes, Barrionuevo pulled one back for Argentina from a corner. Argentina battled hard in the last quarter of an hour but failed to breach the English defence. Both teams received one yellow card apiece.
In the last game of the day, Netherlands strolled away with a 3-1 victory over New Zealand. New Zealand put up a very good fight and constantly threatened the Dutch team before scoring their only goal of the game in the 48th minute to take the lead through a penalty corner. It took the Netherlands just two minutes to neutralize the lead when De Goede scored. With four minutes to go, it looked as if the match was boiling down towards a stalemate. But Pauman gave the Dutch the lead for the first time in the game through a superb penalty corner. In the last minute of the game, Lammers sealed the game for the Dutch team with another field goal.
In the first game of day 2, the Germans locked horns with defending Champions Argentina. Keller gave Germans an early lead when she scored an open goal in the 7th minute of the match. Argentina came back strongly by scoring two goals early in the second half in the space of two minutes. Rossi opened the scoring for Argentina while Barrionuevo converted a corner two minutes later to take the lead. The Germans responded well and restored parity in the 59th minute of the match through the stick of Bachmann. The match ended at a 2-2 draw as none of the teams succeeded in finding the winner during the last 10 minutes.
The Dutch took on hosts in the next game and once again marched away with a 3-0 victory. In a game that saw 5 cautions, Netherlands scored three open goals through Hoog in the 23rd minute, Jonker in 31st and De Goede finding the net 4 minutes from time. England failed to respond to the Dutch onslaught and surrendered.
The last match of the day was played between China and New Zealand which was another one-sided affair. China found the lead early through Gao Lihua in the 10th minute of the matc. Song Qingling doubled the lead after 40 minutes of inaction when she scored in the 50th minute of the game. Fu Baorong stamped Chinese authority on the game in the 63rd minute by making it 3-0. New Zealand could only manage a single goal, two minutes from the final whistle as Harrison scored her first goal of the tournament.
Currently, the Netherlands top the table with 2 victories. The leaders have 6 points and a healthy goal different of plus 5. Germany with a win and a draw have 4 points and are placed right after the Dutch. China and England sit at 3 points each while Argentina and New Zealand occupy the last two spots.
Each nation will play a further three games against the remaining opponents starting from tomorrow. The games for classification of positions will be played on July the 18th.
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