Hockey: Argentina and Netherlands reach Women’s Champions Trophy
In the last round of the group games at the 18th Women’s Champion Trophy Hockey Tournament held at Nottingham England, Netherlands and Argentina both beat their opponents Germany and China respectively by a single goal. Setting up a final between the World Champions and defending Champions. In another game on Saturday, New Zealand held England to a 2-2 draw to earn their first point of the tournament and deny the hosts from the final.
Germany took on the Netherlands in the first game of the day and they required a big victory to keep their hopes of reaching the final alive. To their dismay the match proved to be a close contest with both sides putting up a good and clean defensive display. Chances appeared at both ends but neither team succeeded in finding the net until late in the game. The first half didn’t provide much action and there were no goals or bookings to be seen.
Netherlands also needed a win to ensure their passage into the final regardless of the result in the next games. In the 50th minute of the game Lammers broke through and provided the Dutch with the only goal of the game as the Germans had to settle for the third place playoff.
Netherlands booked their place into their 9th final since the competition started and are now second only to Australia with 10 appearances. This was the first time during the last one year when Germany failed to score a goal and they will now play their 7th third position playoff game. They have won the Bronze Medal four times already.
In the second game of the day New Zealand managed to hang on to a draw against England after going into the lead. England who came back from two goals down failed to find the all important third goal which would book them a place in the final. New Zealand opened the scoring in the 9th minute when Hamahona dispatched a powerful shot beyond the English keeper. Flynn doubled the lead through another field goal 9 minutes later.
England, desperate to gather points from their last game responded quickly through White, who scored a minute after New Zealand went 2-0 up. England kept pushing and was rewarded with an equalizer when Cullen converted a corner in 31st minute. The best part of the game following the 4 opening goals did not see any more goals and England’s hopes were pinned to the game between China and Argentina.
New Zealand, who earned their first Champions Trophy point since a draw with Australia in 2006, set up a clash with China for 5th place.
The last game on Saturday between Argentina and China was to decide the finalists of the competition. It was a must win game for Argentina and anything less than a win would send England into the final against the Netherlands. The contest turned out to be one of the most intense encounters of the tournament. Argentina opened the scoring in 20th minute through Sruoga but China drew level in 10 minutes through the stick of Wang Zhishuang. The first half ended at 1-1. Defending Champions Argentina applied pressure from the start of second half and scored two goals in four minutes. One came from a penalty corner converted by D’Elia and Luchetti scored a field goal to take the game to 3-1 in Argentina’s favour. Argentina were on their way to win the game when China hit back with 10 minutes remaining. Zhao Yudiao converted a penalty corner in 60th minute and Fu Baorong scored the third in 64th minutes to level the game once again.
Two quick goals seemed to destroy Argentina’s hopes and gave the English team a lifeline who were waiting in anticipation. Argentina had 6 minutes to win the game and they wrote the fairytale in the very last minute through Barrionuevo’s penalty corner. Argentina went through while England had to settle for the Bronze Medal match against Germany.
This is Argentina’s 4th consecutive and 6th overall final of Champions Trophy. Barrionuevo topped the goal scoring charts with 5 goals and grabbed second spot in penalty corner goals with her 15th goal form a corner in the Champions Trophy. Argentina has already won the last two competitions.
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