German Florian Keller kept up his record of scoring in every match in the Champions Trophy here in Rotterdam - and his lead in the goal scoring table - as his side crashed to a 3-1 defeat to Australia. Although during the game the two teams were even in the short corner stakes, Australia were by far the superior side. Goals came from Jamie Dwyer, Fergus Kavanagh and Eddie Ockenden, all from open play, and Austalia had a number of other chances throughout the game. There were a number of incidents in the match - an injury to an Australian player struck by a teammate in the very first minute; a much delayed and disputed decision by the video umpire in disallowing an Australian goal; and the first yellow cards of the tournament, two of them to the Australians Luke Doerner and Eddie Ockenden.
The Netherland suffered from the curse of being the second named team, none of whom have yet recorded a win in the tournament. South Korea went into this game with no points from their previous three games, having conceded sixteen goals, but having the best record of penalty corner conversions. Although the Dutch took an early lead through Teun de Nooijer, by half time South Korea had overtaken them with goals from Jong Kyun Jang and Jong Ho Seo. The Netherlands drew level in the second half through Roderick Weusthof and then took the lead again with Ronald Brouwer. But they made the basic mistake of not concentrating after scoring and South Korea drew level once more through a penalty stroke converted by Woon KonYeo. And two minutes from time another penalty corner conversion by Jong Hyun Jang gave South Korea a 4-3 win. The Netherlands need to get at least a point against Australia on Saturday and hope that other results go their way in order to avoid the 5/6th play off.
Men’s Champions Trophy after four matches: 1. Spain 7 pts (+4), 2. Australia 7 pts (+3), 3. Argentina 7 pts (+1), 4. Netherlands 6 pts (+2), 5. Germany 4 pts (-3), 6. South Korea 3 pts (-7).
