Match between Black Sticks women and China ends in a draw at 0-0: Women Recap
The second practice match between the Black Sticks women and China ended in a draw with unable to score even a single goal despite some wonderful efforts from both of the teams.
The Kiwis are preparing themselves prior to the FIH Women’s Champions Trophy which is going to be played in Netherlands and matches against the Chinese are the part of their preparation.
In the first match the Kiwis were very disappointed by their performance as they lost to China by 2-1 in the final moments of the match. Taking a early lead in the seventh minute, the Kiwis played good hockey, but unluckily they lost the match in the final
minute of the match. Clarissa Eshuis opened the account for the Kiwis in the seventh minute with the help of a penalty-corner, but their lead remained just for four minutes. In the 11th minute China made the equaliser and the score stood at 1-1
until the last minute.
After that, both of the teams created good opportunities and were also awarded five penalty-corners to each, but the no more goals were scored until the final minute, when China did it again on a penalty-corner.
The second match was even tough fight between the two rivals, which eventually finished goal-less. The match was played into three equal halves of twenty minutes and the Kiwis showed a lot of improved performance, especially in their defence, as compared
to the first match. Mark Hager, the New Zealand’s coach seemed very pleased on the performance of his athletes against China, world number four.
“Some of our basic skills today were poor, but the pleasing factor was that our defence was tight and there were some good penalty corner saves,” Mark Hager, the Black Sticks women’s coach stated his views after the game.
“Due to the specialist nature of the goal keeping position, and the fact that we still had four practice games left till the start of Champions Trophy, we decided that another goal keeper should be brought into the squad,” Mark Hager, the coach of the Black
Sticks Women further stated.
Amelia Gibson, the Kiwi's goal-keeper joined the team in Netherlands to share the burden of the job with the lonely Kiwis’ goal-keeper, Sally Rutherford. However, it is still to be decided whether Amelia Gibson will be retained in the side for the Champions
Trophy or not because Bianca Russell, their seasoned goal-keeper is still recovering from injury and had not taken part in these two practice games along with Kayla Sharland, the co-captain of the Kiwis.
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