The medal hopes of both Great Britain and New Zealand depended on the outcome of this match when the two women’s sides met in Beijing this afternoon. The Blacksticks on zero points and GB on a single point, meant that only a win was an acceptable result. The importance of the match impacted on the performance of both sides for much of the first half, with a tentative and nervous approach being clearly evident. But with seven minutes of play left in the first half, the match came alive when Anne Panter’s defensive stop from a New Zealand penalty corner strike left a loose ball in the circle, which Gemma Flynn pounced on and neatly slotted the ball passed Beth Storry in the GB goal. But GB were back in the match within three minutes, when a pass into the circle by Cilla Wright was lofted towards goal by Charlotte Craddock and neatly parried into the net by Alex Danson.
On the stoke of half time GB were awarded a penalty corner which was struck into the net by Anne Panter, which was immediately disallowed by Carolina de le Fuente, the Argentine umpire. Studying the replay, it is clear that the umpire penalised the shot for entering the goal above the backboard from what appeared to be a slap rather than a flick, and regrettably we have to admit that we believe that her decision was a correct one.
In the second half, it took Great Britain fifteen minutes to take the lead when a dummy strike from a penalty corner unsettled Beth Jurgeleit in the Blackstick’s goal enough for Crista Cullen to strike home. Although GB had clearly taken control of the match by this stage, New Zealand continued to have their chances. A penalty corner strike by Krystal Forgesson was parried away by Beth Storry, emphasising the importance the goalkeepers have been to both of the GB squads in this Olympics.
Final score 2-1 to Great Britain. A great effort and with two winnable matches coming up against the USA and Japan, we can perhaps now see ourselves as medal contenders.
A further report on today’s play will appear on this blog later
