Netherlands defeats English Women in EuroHockey semi-finals – Hockey Update
Despite showing their best performance, the English women failed to qualify for the first time in the finals of the EuroHockey Championship in the last two decades. The single-handed semi-final game was played at the Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengladbach,
Germany on August 25.
The coach of England Danny Kerry, after losing the game spoke to the media and praised the game of the Dutch side. He was of the opinion, “The Dutch played well today and we were outcompeted. I thought we turned the ball over too much. Besides Hannah Macleod’s
chance and the last two minutes we got out-competed. I felt Holland played well but we let them, there were easy turnovers - we may as well have passed to them.”
In addition, English team skipper Kate Walsh stated that they started the quite impressively but the rival Dutch players showed wonderful counter-offence. She continued, “We were too tentative on the ball and it coming back at us. The Dutch tackled back
very effectively and our players weren’t ready, which is disappointing.”
The English team has had a desire to take revenge from the Netherlands to which they lost a game around one year ago in the World Cup qualifiers. The English women unfolded the game in quite wonderful way and took the ball possession in the very early minutes
of the play. With five minutes into the match, Hannah Macleod – the legendary striker from England found an impressive chance to score first goal of the day but to no avail. The Dutch defenders left no chance for the English player to make any advancement.
In the counter offence, the Dutch players drove the ball inside the defensive circle of England and created another penalty corner. This time they decided to test Carlien Dirkse Van Den Heuval who received the shot from Maartje Pauman and chipped it in comfortably
into the cage. It was the goal that put the Dutch team ahead at the scorecard as well boosted the morale of Netherlands. After establishing their dominance on the field, the Dutch team took the reins of the play and did not allow the opposite English rivals
for making a return into the match. The players from Netherlands did not commit any mistake in the later time that was the main reason behind their success. The first half action was completed with Netherlands sitting ahead at 1-0.
England and Netherlands – both the hockey line-ups though resumed the play in the second half with similar pace. However, they failed to score any goal until the 59th minute of the mark.
After an end to end play, Kim Lammers received a pass from the midfield position and slammed a powerful shot at the top of the circle to double the tally. It was the last offence, as the Dutch defenders did not allow the other side for creating any serious
threat. The Netherlands rode away into the finals of the EuroHockey Championships.
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