Japanese Women Hockey team close five-test series with another win – Hockey News
The Japanese National Women Hockey team’s tour of USA has ended in a tied series, with both sides securing two wins, two losses and a draw. In the fifth match, Japan secured their second win in the five-test series by a 3-2 victory, in a match played at the Olympic Training Centre in Chula Vista, California, on April 29, 2011.
In the first-half of the match, the Japanese women dominated the field with an excellent ball possession ratio. Their aggressive play helped the team secure three goals during the first half of the match.
These goals were a result of the US teams’ mistakes, which had been converted into scoring opportunities by the guest team.
Japan scored the first goal on a receiving pass from the mid-field into the US defensive circle, opening the score at 1-0. Another attack from Japan towards the US defence was beautifully shot by Chie Akutsu into the net, to make it 2-0. The third goal was a wonderful ball deflection by Aki Mitsuhashi that went right into the net, taking the lead to 3-0.
The first-half closed with no goal additions from the US side. Despite two penalty corner attempts by the hosts, none of the potential opportunities were converted into a score by them.
In the second-half, a refined US team stepped on the hockey field, with a more sophisticated game. In a matter on ten minutes, Katie O’ Donnell was found in action in the Japanese defensive circle and shot the first US goal, closing down the trail to 1-3.
The match reflected the fact that the tables had turned for the team-in-lead and the US side was all ready to answer back to the Japanese aggression. After some time, a penalty corner was awarded to the US team that was successfully capitalised by Claire Laubach, who had recently completed her 100 International caps on Wednesday. The well-known drag flicker managed a scoop past the Japanese goal-keeper, reducing the Japanese lead to 2-3.
The athletic play from the host-side almost set an impression that the match will head into extra-time. However, US unfortunately failed to attain the equaliser, closing the match at a 3-2 score.
Head Coach of the American Women Hockey team, Lee Bodimeade commented, “The opportunity to play five games against a top ten team in the world provides a huge benefit to our program going forward. It’s frustrating today to dominate statistically, but not come away with the desired result.”
US national squad member, Rachel Dawson said that even though it was disappointing that her team did not win, the loss would be helpful in learning about oneself and the team, which will help in future success.
Dawson added, “For us today, the second half was much stronger than the first. We need to continue learning about playing a complete game, because you have to play a full seventy minutes to be successful on the international level. We learned a lot throughout the series about ourselves and our opponents and we look forward to seeing Japan again soon.”
Japan’s second win concluded the five-test series with a 2-2 draw and both sides stand as winners now. With both teams putting up good performances in all matches, better games can be expected when the sides clash again in future.
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