It has been a bright but chilly day in
Eindhoven for the first day of the KO16 of the Euro Hockey League.
Unfortunately there was little action on the pitch to warm us up but, as is
often the case, there was an exception.
The last match of the day was the much
awaited meeting between the Belgians of KHC Dragons and the Dutch side from
Utrecht, Kampong. Dragons always play
fast attacking hockey and today was no different. What added a bit of spice to
the match was the fact that Kampong had clearly decided to meet fire with fire,
which led to some great action on the pitch.
Jerome Saeys 40th minute goal for Dragons turned out to be the equaliser and the match ended in normal time at 2-2, forcing the match to a shoot-out.
Early misses in the shoot-out competition by
Kampong’s Lawrence Docherty and Sander de Wijn meant that Dragon’s fifth
attempt, taken by Felix Denayer, proved to be the winner; 3-4 to Dragons.
Dragons will meet Rotterdam on Friday in
the KO8. Rotterdam had a 6-1 win over Grunwald Poznan earlier today.
The all-German meeting this afternoon
between Harvestehuder and Uhlenhorst Mulheim had promised much, but provided
little in the way of entertainment. That
finished 1-0 to Harvestehuder and they will play Club de Campo on Friday in the
KO8. Club de Campo had a relatively easy
5-0 win over St Germain.
Tomorrow is the day in which an English
club is involved in all but one of the four matches. Reading take on Polo de Barcelona in the
morning and, after a one match break, this is followed by Waterloo Ducks vs
Beeston, and then by the host club Oranje Zwart playing Surbiton.
PICTURE FROM TODAYS MATCHES ARE AT www.HockeyImages.co.uk.
