Dutch Hockey Team outplays England in EuroHockey: 4-3 – Hockey Update
Billy Bakker was the real architect of the victory, as the Men’s hockey team of Netherlands marked a narrow-margin victory over England in the first round of the European Championship held at the Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengladbach, Germany on August
22, 2011.
The line-up being trained under the supervision of Jason Lee, the English coach, failed to impress the Dutch counterparts. After the match, Jason Lee spoke with the media saying that it was a best from them in the tournament. He further stated, “This is
our best performance of the summer so far and I feel confident about the rest of tournament. It’s very encouraging to see players like Ashley Jackson and Matt Daly coming back into form after long periods out.”
English Team Manager Andy Halliday declared the event as a fantastic competition. He also expressed disappointment over the results saying that they failed to avail all the chances. He underlined, “Holland took full advantage of some early errors in the
second half with some slick finishing and it was always going to be an uphill battle going 3-1 down to a side like that.”
Both the teams started the game in quite a fast way and carried out back-to-back attacks against each other. With furious approaches, the Dutch squad carried out first major attack in the 10th minute of the mark. The Dutch player was not anyone
other than Billy Bakker who drove the ball into the defensive circle of English side and slammed a shot into the goalposts, opening the scoring at 1-0.
After conceding the maiden goal, the English team further sped up their play and started more efforts in search of equaliser. With back and forth attacks, the English side succeeded to lock the horns in the 24th minute of the play. Matt Daly nailed
in first goal for the English team and levelled the scoring at one-each.
In the last ten minutes of the match, both the English and Dutch players rendered some incredible actions. De Nooijer accomplished a wonderful attack but it was denied from the inverse side. The first half of play was reached to an end with both the line-ups
locking horns at 1-1.
The action in the second half was more thrilling and enchanting. With four minutes into the half, the English player committed a foul and awarded a penalty stroke to Holland. Taeke Taekema was the player who successfully converted the opportunity and took
the score at 2-1. In the very next minute, Bakker added one more score and expanded the lead up to two goals.
Daly and Bakker exchanged one goal more in the 54th and 58th minutes and made the game more interesting. With five minutes remaining into the match, Ashley Jackson scored a goal but it could not save them from defeat. The English team
lost the match at 4-3.
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