Round-up of Men’s Rabo Four Nation Hockey Tournament
Men’s Rabobank Four-nation hockey tournament took place at Amstelveen’s Wagener Stadium in Netherlands from June 29 to July 2.
The event was actually scheduled to begin from June 28, but due to extreme weather conditions the opening matches between Pakistan and Netherlands and Germany and England had to be post-poned.
There was a storm warning in the locality that led to a total modification of the competition. The matches were rescheduled such that the opening day matches took place on July 2, the last day.
According to the original fixtures, the event was to end on July 3 with the play-off and the final match. However, the organisers and the team officials came up with the decision to totally change the event’s format.
The Four-nation was modified to be played as a round-robin and the final positions were to be evaluated on the basis of total wins, losses, draws, points earned, goals delivered and goals conceded.
At the end of the event, the team that took up the title was the host team that won two of the three matches, whereas the third match was a draw, giving the team a total of seven points.
The Dutch team defeated Pakistan by 4-0 and Germany by 2-1.
Dutch striker Jeroen Hertzberger was an outperformer during the entire event as he scored two goals against Pakistan and one goal against England.
The second place of the tournament was secured by England with one win against Germany and two draws against the two teams, Netherlands and Pakistan.
England defeated the German side by 3-2 with a celebration day for the Englishman, Rob Moore, who completed his 200 international caps during that match.
Germany gave a weak performance at the competition by winning one match and losing two, making a total of three points. They defeated the last Four-nation title winners, Pakistan by 2-1.
However, Germany was overpowered by the English at 2-3 and by the host nation at 1-2. Even though, they gave a tough fight to both the teams but failed to match up with an equaliser until the seventieth minute, hence, losing by just a single score difference.
The penalty-corner expert from Germany, Thilo Stralkowski, presented himself strong at the defensive circle of their opponent. However, his potential attempts did not convert into a score due to a strong display of abilities by the opponent goal-keepers.
The last match was with Pakistan that did not come across a single win in its three appearances. The Greenshirts closed a draw against England at 2-2 and two defeats from Germany at 1-2 and Netherlands at a disappointing 0-4.
It was heart-breaking to find the team drop from top, to the last position in the second stop of their Europe tour.
The team was found struggling for possession during their matches at Amstelveen that was not expected from them.
The drag-flick expert, Sohail Abbas, who outshone during the last Four-Nation tournament, played a few good saves as a defender. On the contrary, he also missed many of the penalty-corner attempts awarded to Pakistan that failed to be converted into a score
against their opponent team.
Overall, the event showed a clearer picture of the team’s standings in the round-robin format, as each team received equal chances while facing off their opponents.
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