If anyone had predicted that Great Britain men could win their Olympic encounter against the Dutch they would probably have been carted off by men in white coats, so the outcome of today’s Pool B match in Beijing should not come as a surprise. However, the GB boys put in a solid performance and the final result had more than a hint of bad luck about it. But my man of the match would be goalkeeper Alistair McGregor who kept the Dutch out with more than one save at full stretch.
The Netherlands had some early scoring chances, most notably when Robert van der Horst scooped the ball over McGregor, only to see it go wide of the far post by millimetres. Matthius Brower was bundled off the ball and was awarded a penalty corner but Taeke Taekema’s strike was parried around the post by McGregor. But not all the chances went the way of the Dutch. Ben Marsden had a shot at goal that went wide and a Jackson cross was miscued by Matt Daly in front of goal. Rob Moore had a stinging shot from the edge of the ‘D’ saved by Gus Vogels in the Dutch goal.
Anyone who has watched the Dutch will know that they often use the early parts of the game to work out their opponents tactics and come back at them when they are tired, so it was very much an Dutch second half. Despite the pressure, the Great Britain boys clung onto their draw, and it was with less than 10 minutes left on the clock that tragedy struck. Timme Hong was unceremoniously bundled off the ball by the ever-robust James Tindall just inside the twenty-five. The majority of players went one way to defend the resulting penalty corner, whilst Tindall walked in the other direction and into the sin bin, where he joined Saner van der Weide, who had been binned a minute earlier. When the corner strike came, Taekema, who had so far been thwarted by McGregor or had been off target, struck true this time.
At 1-0 down, it was still not over. GB had a lucky escape when Teun de Nooijer untypically took an air shot when he was unmarked and in front of goal, and a penalty corner was well saved by McGregor. Final score 1-0 to the Netherlands but GB can take heart in the fact that they took on one of the toughest teams in the world and only lost by the smallest margin. Their next two matches are against South Africa and Canada, who they should beat if they maintain today’s performance.
In the other matches in Pool B, Australia did their goal difference no harm when they put ten passed South Africa for no reply. Canada opened the scoring against Pakistan, courtesy of Bini Kullar, but the match eventually finished 3-1 in Pakistan’s favour with goals from Muhammad Imran, Shafqat Rasool and Muhammad Waqas.
The surprise result of the day – or was it? – was when Belgian found their Manchester form in Pool A and held Germany to a 1-1 draw. Spain go to the top of the pool after Santi Freixa scored his side’s only goal in their match against New Zealand. The all-Asian affair between China and Korea ended 5-2 in Korea’s favour after the Chinese opened the scoring with two goals in as many minutes.
Full results and tables are available on our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk. TV schedules on the site are due to be updated later today.
