Hero HWL Hockey:  New Zealand or Netherlands-  Who will be the winner?

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL 

_______________

 New Zealand and the Netherlands are through to the finals of the Hero Hockey World League Final after hard-fought semi final matches. England will play Australia in the bronze medal match. The Black Sticks came into their semi final match hoping to reverse the 1-5 defeat at the hands of England in the pool match earlier in the Hero Hockey World League Final. In fact, at full time both teams were level pegging, but Colin Batch's men were cooler in the shoot out and emerged 7-6 winners to qualify for the final.New Zealand will be joined by the Netherlands in the final after they won their semi final 4-3 against Australia. Constantijn Jonker (12’) opened the scoring at the beginning of the first half when his reverse stick shot found its way into the net and the Dutch doubled their lead when Mink van der Weerden’s (20’) dragflick left the Aussie keeper Tyler Lovell stranded.

It looks the Netherlands are slightly better than  New Zealand but  one has to  wait without making unnecessary guesses.  

Earlier, England, Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia reached semi-finalists of Hero HWL Hockey 2013, focus now was on England to win the title this time, although, true, none of the four top teams can be underestimated.  

However, since the Olympics gold medalist Germany was badly defeated in the quarter finals, one cannot just decide the winner on their current strength or position in ranking.

After all, luck certainly plays its part well in sports!

Upon a sort of rigorous tournament schedule, four top teams, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia have qualified on 15th January for the semi finals of the Hero Hockey World League Final in Delhi scheduled for 17^th January.

 All four teams faced tough challenges. While England showed resilience to soak up sustained pressure from Belgium to win 1-0, the Netherlands held on to a 2-1 lead despite a late surge by Germany. The Black Sticks came through the first shoot-out winning it 4-3 against Argentina. Australia had to overturn a 2-0 deficit to eventually defeat India 7-2.

For India the loss was one of its greatest defeats in hockey history.

Friday's semi finals will see England taking on New Zealand with the Netherlands playing Australia. Germany will face India in the 5-8 classification while Belgium will play Argentina.

In the first quarter final, a close-fought and tense match between England and Belgium saw the teams separated by a single goal. England, which remains unbeaten, looked very uncomfortable at times, but still England is seriously in the hunt for the title. England consigned Belgium to yet another defeat. For most of the first half Belgium looked the sharper side and caught the England defense in possession on a number of occasions.  But a defensive error by the world number four meant Belgium had a chance to attack.. The second half saw Belgium take the initiative, winning a penalty corner in the opening minute. This drew another save from Pinner and acted as a spur to the England team. Two more penalty corners to England increased the pressure on the Belgium defense and it was Tom Carson who scored the crucial opening goal, drag-flicking from the edge of the circle.

The match continued at an intense pace and the world No 4 team was forced to put up a staunch defense as Belgium piled on the pressure.

Hero Man of the Match Pinner was called into action as first Tom Boon and then Gauthier Boccard made inroads into the England circle. England held on to book their place in the semi-finals on Friday, while Belgium will play off for 5th-8th place.

England coach Bobby Crutchley said: "We needed to put our corners away, which would have relieved the pressure a little." But he added that he was delighted with the way his team had dealt with the pressure. "Belgium is a really good side, so we are more than pleased with the result." His counterpart, Marc Lammers said: "This was a good game, and we played much better in the second half. The problem was that we missed too many chances.

Germany v Netherlands 1-2 match was thrilling as the  German Olympics gold medalists  was driven out by Netherland. The men in orange Netherlands started the game in dominant style winning a penalty corner, which was flicked home by Mink van der Weerden in the first minute. The German Olympic silver medallists put pressure on the Olympic champions and this resulted in their second goal a few minutes later. Seve van Ass (6’) got the final touch to double Oranje’s lead. The second half saw Germany playing with more intensity; it took them less than three minutes to get on the scoreboard. The game was really end to end with the European champions taking hold of the game towards the final whistle. Such was the shape of the game that most of the action took place in the centre of the pitch with quick turn-overs making the match very entertaining.

The Netherlands were clearly pleased with the result, although they acknowledged that they nearly let their opponents back into the game. Captain of the German team, Oliver Korn said that before the game the whole squad really wanted to stamp their mark on the game, but they "were asleep at the start of the game." Coach Markus Weise agreed: "We didn't play well in the first half and some of the boys didn't do the work that they needed to. We were much better in the second half but one good half is not enough when you are playing the best in the world.

Argentina v New Zealand ended in a draw 1-1, given an edge to New Zealand.  The first shoot out of the Hero Hockey World League Final took place between New Zealand and Argentina after full-time delivered a 1-1 draw. The eventual winners were New Zealand after they won in the sudden death round of the penalty shootout. The match was very much a game of two halves. With 20 minutes left on the clock, New Zealand appeared to have weathered the Argentine storm, however, the defense couldn't hold out indefinitely and the inevitable occurred when Matias Paredes (59') scored from open play. As neither team found the net in regular time, the game went to penalty shootout. At the end of the first round, both teams were drawing, with two successful penalty attempts each. The second round was sudden death and both Agustin Mazzilli and Hugo Inglis scored.

Looking forward to his semi final confrontation with England, the New Zealand coach Colin Batch said: "England have been playing very well. We hope they have an off day.."

The most interesting, but crudely shocking for Indian side, is Australia v India fight ending at 7-2, total collapse of Indian shield. A bright start by India with 2 goals threatened to provide the shock of the tournament but Australia showed just why they are world champions by turning a 2-0 deficit into a 7-2 victory at the Hero Hockey World League Final in Delhi. The turnaround started in the 24th minute when Nicholas Budgeon put the Kookaburras on the scoreboard by smashing in a penalty corner. Jason Wilson’s (29’) equalised just before halftime and Glenn Turner (35’) made it 3-2 marking his 100th cap with a goal. The world champions dominated throughout the second half. Russell Ford (41’) extending the lead to 4-2. Then Simon Orchard (45’) smashed in a shot from the top of the corner making it 5-2. Ford (47’) made it 6-2 and Jacob Whetton’s (65’) scored to make it 7-2. 

India's coach Terry Walsh, said that his team had not been able to cope with the physicality of Australia.

India could thrash Pakistan easily to reach the quarter finals though Pakistan had played very well all matches till then only to meekly surrender to India. "The physiological make-up of the Indian players needs to develop further”.  

The coach seeks psychological or psychiatric treatment for Indian hockey boys as much as Pakistanis also need it badly before facing India.