Penalty corner striking by Maatje Paumen stunned Argentina as the Dutch cruised through to the finals of the women’s Olympic hockey tournament in Beijing this evening. Paumen struck twice in the first half and, with a super field goal from Marilyn Agliotti to add to the score, the Dutch were able to go into the second half at 3-0. The second half was barely 12 minutes old when Paumen found the net for the third time in the match, using the same technique as the two previous goals – hit quickly and hit hard.
Although the Dutch dominated the game, the Argentines did have their moments. Luciana Aymar played sublime hockey on occasions but one has to add the caveat that she often tried to do too much on her own. The Dutch so dominated the match that there were occasions when one could accuse them of being too casual and a 20th minute goal by Agustina Garcia was the price they had to pay.
The dying seconds of the match saw a goal from both sides. Ellen Hoog, who had been in the thick of things for much of the match, dribbled the ball up the backline, beat the goalkeeper and slammed the ball into the net. Then Argentina’s Alejandra Gulla, who had only returned to the pitch minutes before after being sin-binned for slashing at a Dutch stick, collected a pass on the far post and touched the ball into the net. Final score 5-2 to the Dutch.
In the other semi final the Germans were made to look very ordinary by the host team. Despite scoring early in both halves and being in the lead for most of the first, China looked by far the better side. They even proved that they could score penalty corners when Yibo Ma scored China’s equaliser in the fourth minute of the second half. Ma was lucky to be on the pitch, as she had been suspended by the Tournament Director for failing to control her team following some misconduct at the end of their match against Australia. Her suspension had been overruled on appeal. China’s winner came near to the end of the match, off the stick of Yudiao Zhao. Final score 3-2 to China.
The final between the Netherlands and China will be played on Friday.
Some of the lower places were decided today. Unlike many hockey competitions, the Olympic tournament only requires the top two teams in each pool to play two more matches, namely a semi final and a final or bronze medal mach. For all the other teams in the two pools, third plays third, fourth plays fourth, etc, down the tables. Today saw the matches of the fourth and fifth placed sides. Scores can be found on our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk. Great Britain’s women play Australia on Friday to decide the fifth and sixth places. South Africa and New Zealand also play on that day to decide the wooden spoon.
Tomorrow sees the men’s semi finals between the Netherlands and Germany, and Spain and Australia. Great Britain’s next match is to decide fifth place and will be against Korea on Saturday.
