Great Britain’s women needed to win the last of their Pool B matches against the USA to stand a realistic chance of progressing through to the medal stages, but as the game progressed it became apparent that a win for GB was going to be the greatest miracle since the parting of the Red Sea. The penalty corner count – 10 to 1 in the USA’s favour at one stage of the match – says it all, and the British have goalkeeper Beth Storry (pictured) to thank for not being on the receiving end of a thrashing. Not to take anything away from the USA, who played a good match, it was a game where all too few passes found their target, and more than a few seemed to be aimed directly at an opponent. The USA took control of the match early on, and it was not much more than five minutes old when the USA won a penalty corner after a period of intense pressure. Storry managed to control the ball well after a rebound but the ball then went onto a GB foot. The second attempt found Angela Loy inches from the Britsh goal line, ironically too close to the ball to get it under proper control, before Beth Storry flung herself between Loy and the goal.
The Americans must rue the lack of a decent penalty corner routine. Although Storry was massively instrumental in keeping them out, they paid the price for a lack of originality. Their best chance came in the last five minutes pf the half, when the ball was struck towards the left post, but the player hovering by the post missed her chance.
The second half showed no let up for GB. The USA’s eighth penalty corner, five minutes into the half, was pushed round the post by Storry after a fearsome strike by Kelly Doton. Fifteen minutes later GB must have thought that the gods of Olympia were definitely smiling on them when a penalty corner strike beat Storry to rebound off what appeared to be the inside edge of the near post. The rebound was quickly swept away by Storry before she disappeared among a melee of players.
The last ten minutes gave us hope that GB could at last pull it off. Alex Danson fought her way into the circle but there was nobody there to collect her pass. Rachel Walker found herself unmarked in front of goal but was penalised for ‘feet’ when the pass came her way. GB then earned their first penalty corner of the match, which was struck just wide by Kate Walsh. With less than two minutes left on the clock Great Britain earned two penalty corners, the second of which was in overtime. Were we to see a repeat of the last minute goal scored against Japan a few days earlier? Unfortunately, it was not to be and the final score remained at 0-0.
With the exception of Beth Storry, who throughout this tournament has played well, it is hard to find words to describe this performance. Great Britain clearly did not have their hockey heads on for this match. There were flashes of brilliance – Helen Richardson can share some of the credit for GB keeping a clean sheet in this match and Sarah Thomas continues to impress – but overall a woeful performance.
Further reports will appear on this blog later today.
Full results and tables up to and including the last women’s pool games, will be available on our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk later today.
