Hockey World Cup Day 7 review: India gets its first win of the tournament, Australia's sizzling form continues
India finally got their first win of the tournament after beating Malaysia 3-2 yesterday while Australia continued their good run of form to beat England 5-0. Here is a recap of the day’s matches:
Belgium vs Spain
The day started with Belgium beating Spain 5-2 which included a brace from striker Tanguy Cousyns. It was Spain who started the game on a better note but the alert Belgium defence denied Andres Mir a chance to score. Tanguy Cousyns then scored his first goal of the game through a penalty corner in the 13th minute of the game. Three minutes later Alexandre Saedeleer scored a goal from another penalty corner to give Spain 2-0 lead.
If the earlier matches were all about Tom Boon, this match was all about Cousyns who was in the heart of every Belgium attack. In the 34th minute of the game, Cousyns found Stockbroekx who hit a reverse stick shot for a goal. Belgium ended the first half with a score of 3-0.
The second half of the game began with Spain winning a penalty corner which was saved by Belgium defence before Coussyns scored his second of the day with a penalty corner in 36th minute of the game. John-John Dohmen then piled on the misery for Spain as he scored his first of the game to give Belgium a 5-0 lead in the game.
Spain tried a late comeback through goals from Eduard Tubau and Santi Frexia in the 58th and 66th minutes respectively, but it was not enough to beat Red Lions.
India vs Malaysia
The second game of the day between the bottom-placed teams saw India beat Malaysia 3-2 with a brace from Akashdeep Singh. The result gave India its first win while Malaysia is yet to score a single point in the tournament.
It was India who drew first blood when Jasjit Singh scored a goal despite a penalty corner received by India not being used judiciously. Apart from the penalty corner, India received many chances to score but Kumar Subramaniam’s heroic performance once again saved Malaysia from a thrashing.
While the Malaysian attack was not working, India had problems of their own as they failed to convert all the four penalty corners received in the match. With these four misses, India’s record of penalty corners earned to converted stands at 12-0.
Malaysia levelled the game in the 46th minute of the match through Razie’s drag flick. With the score line getting even, Akashdeep joined the party to score two field goals which gave India a 3-1 lead in the match. The last 10 minutes of game saw more action than the first half had as both teams went on full attack to score a goal. It was Malaysia who managed to strike when Marhan Jalil scored a field goal in the 61st minute of the game to reduce the score line to 3-2.
Indian captain Sardara Singh was happy after the win and he said, “We are happy to win our first game.”
The win puts India in the 4th spot in Group A while Malaysia is languishing at the bottom of the table.
Australia vs England
Four first half goals by four different scorers set the tone of the match and they gave defending champions Australia another victory in the tournament as they beat England 5-0. It took Australia just 24 seconds in the match to get on the board when Matt Ghodes took Glenn Turner’s pass to score the first goal of the match. The goal shook England as they never recovered from Australian onslaught.
12 minutes later, Australia won a penalty corner which was easily converted by Liam De Young and at the 30th minute of the play, Jamie Dwyer put the ball behind the net from a Jake Whetton pass. Whetton was superb in the game, fighting for every ball in England’s half and putting pressure on the English defence to create chances. Just before half time, the unmarked Kieran Govers took a Mark Knowles pass to put the ball behind England’s goal to give Australia a 4-0 lead at half time.
Australia loosened the grip in the second half of the game as they scored just one goal with Aran Zawelski being the goal scorer. England tried with all their might to score but could not find the Australian net due to some alert defending from the Kangaroos.
The win gives Australia full three points which means they have qualified for the semi-finals.