Dutch Men defeat England 4-3 in EuroHockey Nations Championship in Germany – Hockey Update
Triple strike by Billy Bakker led the Dutch athletes to an impressive victory over their English counterparts defeating them by 4-3 in their second Pool B match in the EuroHockey Nations Championship (Men) played at Warsteiner HockeyPark in Monchengladbach,
Germany on Monday, August 22.
The game was an entertaining contest between the two best sides in Pool B, the Netherlands and the defending champions England where the Dutch undoubtedly showed their class and their skills that led them to a thrilling victory. The Dutch dominated the defending
champions throughout the match, particularly in the second part of the game where they scored three goals after having scored a single in the first thirty five minutes while their opponents scored a solitary goal in the first half before making a double strike
in the second half. However, they fell short of one strike in the end.
England’s coach looked very impressed with the performance of his athletes against a much better side like Netherlands.
”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,” Jason Lee, the coach of the English
men’s national hockey team positively stated after the match.
The first half started with an early action by the Dutch as they opened their account in the 10th minute when Billy Bakker scored a beautiful field goal. However, the English equalised in the 24th minute when Matt Daly made a wonderful
strike on open play before going to break.
The second half was even more entertaining as the Dutch once again took the early lead just five minutes into the second half when they were awarded a penalty stroke and Taeke Taekema made no mistake in converting it into goal in the 39th minute.
Moments after their second goal, Billy Bakker once again ticked the scoreboard in the 40th minute that doubled the Dutch lead. However, the English reduced the Dutch lead in the 54th minute with Matt Daly again was the scorer. The Dutch
scored their final goal of the match in the 58th minute that completed the Bakker’s hat-trick before the English made it 3-4 in the 65th minute with Ashley Jackson contributed to the scoreboard.
"They played well. We maybe contributed to it a little bit with a couple of mistakes. We weren't completely at our best - so maybe they just shaded it. But I don't think they were a lot better than us at all. We gave them a couple of goals and that made
it hard work to come back," Barry Middleton, the English skipper, commented after the match.
The Dutch team put in a tremendous effort as they played brilliantly against England. The Dutch managed to dominate the game throughout and restricted England from scoring during crucial moments of the match, taking a close 4-3 victory in the end.
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