Day One FIH Champions Challenge 2: Hockey Recap
The FIH Champions Challenge 2 for women was inaugurated in Vienna, Austria and will be held from May 7 and will conclude on May 15. This event is being organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and comprises of eight national women hockey teams.
These participating teams are Belgium, Malaysia, Russia, Italy, Belarus, Austria, Canada and Chile that have been divided into two pools, each comprising of four teams.
Pool A includes Italy, Canada, Chile and Austria whereas Pool B consists of Malaysia, Belgium, Russia and Belarus.
The inaugural match of the day was played between Belgium and Malaysia that which was sealed by Belgium at 2-1.
Malaysia, the 22nd ranked team, opened a lead score in the first half when Fazila Sylvester Silin delivered a shot home on the 14th minute mark. The first half closed with no additions to scoreboard by either side.
However, in the second minute of the next half, Belgium came into action and sealed an equaliser when Jill Boon scored a shot home, setting scores at 1-1. The match went head-to-head for quite long until Belgium’s Morgane Vouche scored a goal in the 54th
minute, taking lead by 2-1. The match concluded with the first win for Belgium by a one-goal difference.
The next match took place between the 18th ranked Russia and the World 23 seeded Belarus. It was surprising to watch the lower-ranked team trounce the stronger ones by a 4-3 win.
In the first half, Belarus opened the score in the 21st minute when Hanna Zabrotskaya netted a shot home. The rest of the first half went smooth with no team advancing towards a score-point.
However, the second half was an action-packed play with both the teams juggling the ball possession from one end to other.
Soon Belarus slotted three goals in a row, which included another one from Zabrotskaya and advanced its lead to 4-0. Russia rushed into action and amazingly secured three goals in a six-minute span and reduced the lead to 3-4.
However, a 60th minute attempt by the Russian Irina Kuzmina was denied by the Belarus defence, keeping hold of their lead until the conclusion of the match with a victory at 4-3.
The third match of the day was played between the 16th ranked Chile and the 20th ranked Italy.
Chile took up an early lead by opening the first score in the seventh minute against Italy at 1-0. The Chilean defence eased up that allowed their opponents o make it into the defensive circle and Italy managed to avail an equaliser, eight minutes later
the Chilean attack, levelling the scores at 1-1.
Here Chile’s Denise Infante shot a goal into the net in the 53rd minute that allowed them to gain back their former lead by 2-1.
The match ended up with no more additions to the scoreboard, declaring the victory for Chile at 2-1 over Italy.
The last game of the day took place between Canada and Austria in which Canada sealed its first win at 2-1 over the host team.
The 19th ranked team was strong enough to beat down the 37th ranked Austria by strong penalty corner conversions. All the three scores of the game took place as a result of penalty corner awards to both sides.
Canada converted their first penalty corner in the 12th minute of the first half followed by another conversion with just 3 minutes to half-break. Both the goals were delivered by the Canadians Katie Baker and Jessalyn Walke, setting the scores
at 2-0.
The second half reflected the fact that Canada will end up with a solitary win until Austria’s Irene Balek converted the team’s 62nd minute penalty corner award, reducing the trail to 2-1. However, the match concluded in favour of Canada with
a 2-1 victory over the host team.
Tags: