Women Champions Trophy: Las Leonas Wins Third Time In A Row
Argentina wins the Samsung Women Champions Trophy for the third time in a row, by defeating Olympic Champions Argentina in the final.
England finished third in the tournament, this was the teams best performance ever in the Champions Trophy, after its triumph over Germany. Black Sticks gave a surprise to the Silver medalists of Olympic Games China, to claim 5th position in the tournament.
The final game of the tournament was played between the two best teams of the Championship, the Dutch side were the Olympic Champion whereas Las Leonas were defending their title. Match was evenly balanced in first few minutes where both sides were attacking to gain initial advantage. the first goal of the day came from the flick of Noel BARRIONUEVO when a penalty corner was awarded to South Americans in the 9th minute of the match.
The Dutch side started attacking the opposite end to equalize the score and their effort turned into a goal in the 18th minute when Kelly JONKER flicked from the left of the circle and beat the goalkeeper.
In the 25th minute of the match Las Leonas again got the lead when Carla REBECCHI scored an awesome field goal. Just 5 minutes later Argentina doubled their lead when their penalty corner specialist Noel BARRIONUEVO scored another goal for her side.
The first half ended with Las Leonas leading by 3 goals to 1. With the start of the second half the Dutch forwards pushed hard to score but it was the Argentinean defense that cleared the danger every time. At last in the 57th minute Maartje DODERIE scored the 2nd Dutch goal.
The Dutch were eager to score an equalizer but they couldn’t. Noel BARRIONUEVO completed her hat-trick in the 68th minute of the match when she scored the 4th goal for her side and with this Argentina won the Champions Trophy for the 3rd time consecutively. Noel BARRIONUEVO became the highest goal scorer of the tournament by scoring 8 goals for her side.
England defeated Germany by 2 goals to 1 to record their best performance in the Champions Trophy until now. In the bronze medal match England came as a stronger candidate by gaining 10 points from the round matches.
The match started with some wonderful attacks from the home side, England was awarded a penalty corner but they couldn’t score. The first goal of the match came in the 9th minute of the game when Maike STOECKEL scored to give Germany the lead.
The home side tried to equalize, but their efforts were blocked by the German defense. The second half was slow in the start but both teams gained momentum as the time progressed. Susie GILBERT scored an equalizer on rebound in the 43rd minute of the match when a penalty corner flick was blocked by the German goal keeper. The Germans again started attacking the English goal post but Beth STORRY was hard to beat.
England scored the final goal of the match in the 51st minute when Crista CULLEN’s penalty corner flick found the net. The Germans tried hard to equalize but it was England who won the bronze medal and reached the winning podium.
In a 5th -6th position play off at High fields Sport Centre, The Nottingham black sticks claimed their first victory of the tournament. New Zealand won this match by 4 goals to 3. The came back after being 3 teams behind, to win this match.
The first goal of the match was scored by MA Yibo in the 9th minute but the black sticks equalized three minutes later thanks to a wonderful goal by Charlotte HARRISON. ZHAO Yudiao gained the lead for the second time but it was Katie GLYNN's penalty corner flick that found an equalizer.
MA Yibo’s penalty corner effort gave Chinese side lead third time but two field goals by Piki HAMAHONA and Gemma FLYNN in 58th and 63rd minutes were enough for the Black Sticks to gain 5th position in the Champions Trophy.
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