Women CT: Las Leonas kept their hopes alive, England and Netherlands win
The Argentine side won their first match of the Samsung Women Champions Trophy played at Highfields Sport Centre in Nottingham, England, on the third day of the tournament. Hosts came back strongly after Sunday’s defeat against the Olympic Champions Netherland. In the last match of the day the Dutch side came back from behind to win their third match of the tournament.
On the first match of the day the Argentine side kept their hopes to win the Champions Trophy for third time in a row alive, by beating New Zealanders by 4 goals, all scored in the 2nd half. Las Leonas have just 1 point to their credit as they managed to draw the match against the German side, and lost to the hosts on the opening day.
The match started with both sides attacking each other’s goal posts but soon the South Americans were dominating the game. Bianca RUSSELL, the black sticks goalkeeper, saved some wonderful moves from the defending champions. After the injury which kept Luciana AYMAR away for some time the match was played on half line with no real attacks from either side. In the last minutes of the first half the Kiwi goalkeeper made a string of saves to keep her side going in deficit.
From the start of the second half Argentine players were attacking the goal but couldn’t score. Their first goal came from the stick of Delfina MERINO who converted a pass into the goal in the 42nd minute. 12 minutes later Noel BARRIONUEVO scored the 2nd goal via a powerful penalty corner flick. With only 4 minutes before the end of match Luciana AYMAR scored a wonderful field goal to increase the lead by one goal. Daniela SRUOGA scored the fourth goal of the match in the 68th minute of the match to defeat the New Zealanders by 4-0.
In the 2nd match of the day Hosts defeated the German side by 2 goals to 1. The German side was without their main player Jennifer PLASS, as she suffered from a broken bone in the foot which ruled her out of the Champions trophy. In the 20th minute of the match Tina BACHMANN scored the first goal for the Germans but the English side went for a referral where the video umpire disallowed the goal. The Germans were definitely not happy with the decision.
In the 24th minute England was awarded a penalty corner where they scored, thanks to a diving effort by Helen RICHARDSON. This goal gave back the confidence the hosts needed as they started playing some aggressive hockey. At the end of the first half England were leading by 1 goal to nil.
From the start of second half onwards the German side fought hard for the equalizer but Beth STORRY, England goalkeeper, was hard to beat. The German side ultimately found an equalizer in 61st minute when Natascha KELLER scored on a penalty corner rebound, the host once again asked for the referral but their appeal was turned down by the video umpire. Just three minutes later Helen RICHARDSON repeated her performance and scored the second goal for her side. England won the match by 2 goals to 1 with the help of a wonderful save by Beth STORRY in the last minute of the match.
During the 3rd match of the day, the Netherlands continued their winning streak by beating China by two goals to one. The match started with weather conditions which were not necessarily perfect for the game at Nottingham. China took on an early lead when their striker FU Baorong scored in the 5th minute of the match.
Netherlands came back strong and won many penalty corners where their Chinese goalkeeper ZHANG Yimeng saving some clear chances. The Chinese defense deprived the Dutch side equalizers in the first half of the match. The Dutch side scored the equalizer when penalty corner specialist Maartje PAUMEN ultimately scored in 42nd minute of the match.
The Chinese side ended their defensive approach and started playing some competitive hockey. In 59th minute Maartje PAUMEN was able to score 2nd goal which proved to be the last goal of the match and Netherlands won by two goals to one.
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