Australia in dire straits at Champions Trophy

AMSTERDAM: Two losses to Netherlands (3-0) and New Zealand (3-2) have left Australia bottom of Pool B at the women’s field hockey Champions Trophy.

Australia must win comfortably over Germany in the last pool match on Tuesday or miss out on the semifinals and certain relegation from next January’s Champions Trophy in Argentina.

In the format of this tournament, only the two top teams in the two pools progress to a play-off pool for medals while the bottom two teams in each pool vie for classification from five to eight.

Previously the top five teams in the Champions Trophy progressed to the next tournament and the last team was relegated.

The International Hockey Federation Executive Council will shortly ink the format for the next Champions Trophy next year, the all-important Olympic year in which the Champions Trophy is the final testing tournament.

It is proposed that only the top four teams from the current Champions Trophy are assured of a place at the next Champions Trophy and the top two teams from the recently completed Champions Challenge – Japan and USA – will move up to the Champions Trophy in Argentina.

If this proposal is adopted, Australia’s hopes of getting to the next Champions Trophy rest on beating Germany on Tuesday by two or three goals and rely on Netherlands beating New Zealand by about the same margin.

Other matches Tuesday in Pool A see England against China and Argentina against South Korea.