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Australia’s men and women as well as New Zealand’s women started their hockey World Cup campaigns with victories yesterday in The Hague.
The Kookaburras produced a solid 4-0 win over Malaysia in the opening match while the Australian women, known as Hockeyroos, defeated Korea 3-2.
Earlier, the first encounter in the women’s competition had seen New Zealand walking away with a narrow 4-3 win over Belgium to top pool A.
“We took a long time to score. We were our own worst enemy,” Australia men’s coach Ric Charlesworth said.
“We made a bunch of chances in the first half and didn’t finish.”
Glenn Turner put the Kookaburras ahead in the 25th minute before three goals in a four-minute spell in the second.
Eddie Ockenden doubled the lead on 50 minutes and Jamie Dwyer put his name on the score sheet a couple of minutes later. Turner added his second goal when converting a penalty corner to extend the lead to 4-0.
“I think in the first game of the tournament everyone is a bit anxious and things are just being sorted out but I’m pleased with the result,” Charlesworth said.
The Australian women conceded an early field goal from Cheon Eunbi but came back to score three to win the game. Madonna Blyth equalised before Anna Flanagan struck twice to turn the score around. Cheon Seul Ki’s goal on 67 minutes came too late for Korea to claim a draw.
The Black Sticks women led Belgium 4-0 after 44 minutes of play thanks to a Krystal Forgesson double strike and goals from Anita Punt and Kayla Whitelock.
However, Belgium, ranked 12th in the world, took control of the match in the second half and scored through Barbara Nelen, Emilie Sinia and Stephanie de Groof to shorten the score to 4-3.
New Zealand’s Forgesson said: “Belgium showed a lot of determination to get back at us. This is something we need to look at, because we were fortunate to have made the most of our chances early on.”
In a late match, India conceded a last minute goal to lose 2-3 to Belgium.
Trailing 0-1, India went ahead in a space of six minutes through Mandeep Singh (44th) and Akashdeep Singh (50th).
But Belgium made it 2-2 through Simon Gougnard from a penalty corner in the 55th minute and stole the match from India in the 70th minute through a field goal from John Dohmen’s late goal arrived with just 17 seconds on the clock, meaning that India didn’t even have to time restart the game let alone go in search of the equaliser.
It was a fittingly dramatic end to a pulsating game in which both teams made massive contributions.
