New Delhi, 17 Jan 2014: The Netherlands are finally on course to make their mark on the inaugural Hero Hockey World League Final and want to become the first winners of the new Grade 1trophy of FIH. On Friday, they sent World Cup winners and No.2 ranked Australia crashing out with a hard-fought 4-3 victory at the Dhyan Chand Stadium here.
“Yes, we are losing in the finals. But here, we will play to our potential and focus on our strategy. New Zealand have surprised England, a better-ranked team, so we will not take them lightly. But it is good for us that are playing the Kiwis. Our approach will not change,’’ said the Dutch coalch Paul van Ass.
Australia will face England in the bronze-medal match on Saturday.
The Dutch began in an aggressive mood scoring in the very 12th minute when Constantijn Jonker sent in a fierce backhander to open the account. The Australian seemed to be out of sorts and their defence looked shaky. Their forwards missed easy chances and the coordination between the midfield and the strikers lacked the sting. The Dutch made the best use of this unusually soft Aussie attack and made it 2-0 when Mink van der Weerden, who was later declared the man of the match, shot home from a penalty corner as his drag flick brooked no answer from Aussie custodian Tyler Lovell.
Credit is also due to the strong presence of Jaap Stockmann under the Dutch bar where he managed to ward off a couple of sure-looking shots and a short corner after short corner.
The Netherlands went into the break with a psychological advantage of leading 2-0. Aussies applied tremendous pressure in the rival circle and it yielded in a their third short corner. The Kookas, unusually, wasted two short corners and not one more. Kieran Govers was on target pulling one back in the 42nd minute and it was Russell Ford, five minutes later, who brought in the equalizer at 2-2 deflecting a long cross from Stockmann.
In fact, the Kookaburras went ahead taking the lead for the first time and it appeared as if they would seal the issue. Kieran Govers sent in a powerful flick and the goal came in 55th minute which made him the top scorer of the tournament thus far with six goals.
The Netherlands continue to frustrate the Aussies and that they did with alarming regularity. This time it was Jeroen Hertzberger who drew level with 62nd minute goal after he was put in possession by Billy Bakker and with just four minutes remaining on the clock, Man of the Match Mink van der Weerden sounded the death knell for Australia converting from a set-piece drill and that turned out to be the match winner an it denied the Australians a chance to have a shot at the Number One ranking.
Ric Charlesworth, Chief Coach of the Australian team said, “We are very disappointed with the result. It was an exciting match. We recovered well and put up a great fight but could not change the outcome. When we miss so many chances, it is difficult to force a victory. We also committed a lot of mistakes. Our team appears to be unpredictable. It is good but we have to be consistent. Some minor unforced errors can completely change the course of the game.”
Paul van Ass, the Netherlands coach said: “We had a good fight today. We knew this would be an exciting match as Australia is a strong opponent and our team is in good form too. They kept pushing us to defence but we came back pretty well and maintained our lead.”
ends