FIH Champions Trophy (Women): England, Argentina and Germany win their matches on Day Four
The ‘Las Leonas’ proved too good for the Olympic Champions Netherlands, and kept their hopes alive of winning the Champions Trophy for the third time in a row. In other matches of the day, Germany thrashed its opponents New Zealand 5-2 to gain 3 points out of the match. The unpredictable host nation England defeated China 2-1 to register their third win of the tournament.
In the first match of the day played at Highfields Sport Centre in Nottingham, the German side defeated The Black Sticks by 5 goals to 2. Tina Bachmann’s XI were aggressive from the very first minute of the match. The Germans scored their first goal in the 12th minute of the match, when Eileen Hoffmann’s stroke found the goal post. Germany would have doubled their lead, but excellent saves by New Zealand goalkeeper Beth Jurgeleit cleared the attempts. In the 20th minute of the match, Katarina Otte scored on the rebound of a penalty corner flick by Tina Bachmann. After going in a 2-goal deficit, the Black Sticks made some moves and won three penalty corners, but couldn’t score on any of them. In the 32nd minute of the match, Eileen Hoffmann scored her second goal. New Zealand was 3-0 at the end of the first half. The Kiwis came back stronger in the second half and made some exceptional moves, but the German defence proved too good for them. Maike Stoekel scored the 4th goal for the German side, finishing the Kiwis’ hope to make comeback in this game. Natascha Keller scored on a penalty stroke in the 57th minute of the match when Celine Wilde was fouled inside the D when she was just going to strike the ball. New Zealand scored 2 face-saving goals in the 63rd and 67th minute of the match when Katie Glynn and Samantha Harrison scored. The Germans won this match by 5-2, and Eileen Hoffmann became the highest scorer of the tournament by scoring 4 goals overall for her team at the 2010 tournament.
In the 2nd match of the day, Hosts England beat China to gain all three points from the match. China took the initial lead when Ma Yibo scored on a penalty corner. Her powerful flick found the top right corner of the English goal. Although the hosts had possession for more time in the half, they couldn’t convert any opportunities to goals. With the start of the second half, England turned things around and played some wonderful hockey. Helen Richardson scored an equalizer in the 45th minute of the match when she scored on the third penalty corner awarded to the home side. Charlotte Craddock scored just 7 minutes later on a magnificent deflection. The English side won the match by 2-1 and their place in the final depends on their match with the last-ranked side of the tournament, New Zealand, on Saturday.
Las Leonas defeated Netherlands 4-2 when the two best teams of the tournament met in the third match of the fourth day of Samsung Women Champions Trophy at Nottingham. The match was levelled at 2-2 at the end of first half. Janneke Schopman deflected the penalty corner flick by Noel Barrionuevo in the 7th minute of the match. The Dutch side soon found the equalizer when Marilyn Agliotti scored in the 9th minute of the match. In the 23rd minute, Maartje Paumen scored on a penalty corner earned by Ellen Hoog to give the Dutch side a lead by one goal. With just two minutes remaining in the first half, Delfina Merino scored an equalizer to tie the score at 2-2. With the start of the second half, Las Leonas were more attacking and made some good moves. They eventually got the lead in the 47th minute of the match when Delfina Merino scored. In the 54th minute, Rosario Luchetti, off a deflection from Agustina Soledad Garcia, scored the fourth and last goal for the South Americans. The Dutch side tried to score some goals but couldn’t, and experienced their first defeat of the tournament by two goals to four.
Points Table
Team
Played
Won
Lost
Draw
Goals
Against
Points
Netherlands
4
3
1
0
10
6
9
England
4
3
1
0
6
6
9
Argentina
4
2
1
1
11
6
7
Germany
4
2
1
1
10
7
7
China
4
1
3
0
6
7
3
New Zealand
4
0
4
0
4
15
0
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