Holland beats Pakistan by 4-0 and wins the 2011 Rabo Four-Nations Hockey Tournament
In the last round robin match of the Rabo Four-Nations men’s hockey tournament, held on July 2 at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands, the host team whitewashed Pakistan by a solitary 4-0 to clinch the title.
As compared to the last year's third place finish in the World Cup, it was a performance booster for the team to top the table over the World Cup winners, Germany.
In the first half, Holland opened up their account with a 10th minute goal made by Jeroen Hertzberger.
Pakistan soon responded with an attack that was quickly beaten by the host player, Floris Evers, not allowing them to meet an equaliser.
However, Holland made another attack and received a penalty-corner in the 27th minute that was wonderfully converted by Roderick Weusthof, taking their lead to 2-0.
With the last minute ticking on the clock for half-time, Weusthof reappeared to add another count on the scoreboard for Holland, when he struck a shot into the goal-post for the 35th minute penalty-corner conversion, closing the first half with
a lead at 3-0.
Pakistan raised objection over this penalty-corner, which was awarded to the Dutch side, but the Greenshirts overlooked and conceded the third goal of the day.
In the second half, Pakistan showed up stronger and received two penalty-corners that were both denied by the Dutch goal-keeper, Klass Veering.
On the 57th minute mark, Holland came up on offence when Hertzberger attempted a shot over the Pakistan goal-keeper, Salman Akbar, which deflected from his pads into the net, sealing the fourth goal for the host at 4-0.
At this point, Pakistan team felt defeated and turned down, meeting another failure at 0-4 against Holland in the last match of the Quadrangular series.
According to Holland’s Coach Paul van As, the team performed very well during the first half of the match and that he was satisfied with the results.
Alternatively, Pakistan hockey team’s manager, Khawaja Junaid, was heart-broken over the first goal from the opponent side and said, "That was the time when it became difficult to implement our plan. But we played well in patches and had many chances in
the second half which we could not put away."
Comparing with the Dublin Quadrangular tournament title win, it was disappointing to find Pakistan placed last in the Rabo Four-Nations competition.
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