The talk in Madrid this morning was about the penalty corner which led to the extra time golden goal penalty corner that gave Australia a place in finals against the Netherlands on Sunday. Local television have shown the incident that led to the corner and from what I can see the umpire was spot on. Although the ball was rising when it hit the defender, it does not look as if the ball was ever going to clear shin-pad height and the umpire decided, rightly in my view, that the ball was not dangerous. Hence the corner.
Today's action at the Campo ground was to decide some of the lower placings. England can take some small satisfaction from at least one of today's matches. Some of the USA's recent promise faded when they were beaten by an increasingly confident Japan, who now take the 5th place. Korea beat China to take the 9th place, and India put a single goal past South Africa to take the 11th place and leaving South Africa with the wooden spoon. Photographs of the USA v Japan and India v South Africa matches will appear on our web site later next week.
Thoughts now turn to tomorrow and the hope that England can lift themselves to beat an equally demoralised Germany and take the 7th place. But the big attractions of the day are the promise of an all Latin affair when Spain play Argentina for the Bronze medal, followed by old adversaries, Australia v the Netherlands, in the final. It is interesting to note how national fortunes either follow or otherwise the progress of the men's teams in Monchengladbach. We have one team in the finals (Australia) and one team in the bronze medal match (Spain) from the same nations, but certainly the fortunes of the Netherlands and Germany are quite different to those three weeks ago.
