World Cup hockey : bronze medal match
Less than 18 hours prior, the Australian team gave it all on the pitch only to wind up second best on the night in a pulsating & non-stop action packed semi-final game against Netherlands that would have drained out any team, physically and perhaps mentally as well. However, if you were at the stadium around 3.30 pm on Sunday, Dec 16th, you would be excused if you thought it was the backup Australian team that showed up. A lot of friendly banter, hand locks , shoulder bumps and even sending in a plastic rugby ball into the stands for light hearted exchange showed no signs of any carry over effects from the previous night. Boy, was the Australian team relaxed with the medal on the line ? They absolutely were not visibly stressed and showed up on the pitch to just enjoy and play hockey, with all seriousness but without the tension. I think this showed for the next 84 minutes of the game that they were clinical but mentally relaxed and that saw them school England thoroughly, who not so long ago, were one of the leading European teams challenging the holy trinity of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
England attacked for the first few minutes and that's almost all the visitation rights that they got for the entire game save for some moments in Q3. Australia then felt enough was enough and started making some crisp passes and attacks mainly from the left. English attacks were frequently stopped before the 25 and Australia hunted in twos and threes. A couple of opportunistic moves from the Aussies either crossed the goal line or sliced the English defence and was too fast for anyone to capitalise One other such attack in the 8th min resulted in England tripping an attacker inside the D. Of the resulting PC, Blake Govers dragged wide. Less than a minute later, an unmarked Govers hovering around the 25 was fed with a turnover pass past 4 English players, side stepped the lone defender and unleashed a fierce reverse hit from the D top to skid past the diving English goalie, Harry Gibson who could only watch the ball rebound after going inside the goal. 1-0. After another a minutes or so, an aerial ball into the D found Tim Brand of Australia who tackled 3 defenders near the goal line and squared the ball in front of the goal mouth where an English defender managed to intercept but was quickly dispossessed by Tim with the ball landing right at the stick of an unmarked Tom Craig who displayed some Table Tennis like moves by tapping towards the goal which bounced back to him after being saved by the English goalie and the resulting ball bouncing at a comfortable height to Tom who slotted into the net with a swift tap into the net to put Aus 2-0 up. A few more attemps for the rest of Q1 kept the one way street busy. With a minute or so about to go, the Gleghorne of England dodged a few Australian players and made a beautiful pass to a waiting Ansell inside the D who took a first time shot at the goal team only for the Aussie goalie, Tyler Lovell putting out his right pad out in time to deflect the goal bound ball away.
Q2 started off with the Australians not taking the foot off the pedal. A number of triangular passes with the defence kept the English attackers at bay into a wait and watch mode. In the midst of this, around the 19th minute, Blake Govers of Australia found a parking spot on the right side of the English goal without any defender marking him. A beautiful 1-2-3 move initiated by Tom Craig getting past a couple of English defenders , passing to Harvie on the right at the top of the D resulted in a pass to the unmarked Blake who changed the direction of the ball by unselfishly passing back to the rushing Tom who swept the ball to the far right of the goal with the goal keeper way out of position. It was a 'W' shaped move with the ball reversing direction swiftly making the goalie and 4 defenders look silly ball-watching. It was one hell of an exhibition of accurate passing, brilliant team effort and on-the-feet thinking on the part of the marauding Aussies. At this point in time, a wag in the crowd mentioned that the Aussies seem to have a quota of 2 goals per quarter in this match. A number of attempts later saw the English ward off the challenge to deny this quota. Well, just for this quarter that is.
Going into the lemon break, it was evident where this match was heading. The English defence was as porous as a paper dosa. And the Aussies were feasting on the dosa at will.
Evidently, England were reminded that there is a stick in their hands and were also permitted in the rules to attempt to score goals in this match. An aerial ball into the Australian D was surprisingly mis-trapped by the defender and falling to a waiting English attacker who managed to secure a PC in the first minute after the break. Now, if you watch England take their PCs for the remainder of the match, one can be forgiven if they thought that the entire team attended only the first hour of the PC training session and bunked the rest of the day ! They kept repeating just one move, drag just below the knee level of the goalie right in the centre of the goal which resulted predictably in the ball being saved without much fuss, every time 3 minutes into Q3 resulted in a good attack by the English that was not only thwarted but more often than not resulted in a swift Aussie counter attack.
What followed in the next 3 minutes was just pure massacre. Brand earns a PC in the 32 minute by receiving a pass between the defenders. Of the PC, the English goalie did very well to save the drag flick by padding away to the left only to find the ball land at the unmarked Trent Mitton who deftly reverse hits into the goal. 4-0. On resumption, Mitton tackles the English attacker and after doing very well to retain possession passes it on to an unmarked Craig who approaches the goal, moves the ball one-handed on the reverse, goes near the penalty spot and quickly pushes it past the diving goalie in literally one move. No sooner had the pyrotechnics finished, did another attack initiate from the left thanks to the benovolence of the English midfielder who forgot that he had a stick in his hand and results in Craig sprinting down the left and with a superb 1-2, scoops the ball into the D just in time before the charging goalie, Gibson. Again, superb combination of team skills, passing and pace. Craig celebrates his hatrick in style and is mobbed by his mates.
England could have been forgiven if they were at Wimbledon. Score reads 6-0. 1st set over ! Australia was back at the 2 goals/quarter rate.
But, England did remember that this was a hockey game and they did not have their racquets in hand. A body check resulted in a PC for England. And guess what ? Yes, you are right ! It was dragged right into the middle of the goal for Tyler to pad away. It got worse with Liam Ansell of England seemingly pull a hamstring and hobble off with about 7 minutes left in the quarter. England then made a flurry of moves with Andrew Charter stopping a good hit at the goal, another ball being deflected wide and a goal also being disallowed due to a foul. Another rare defensive error in the 25 saw England string a set of good short passes resulting in the ball falling to an unmarked Middleton who waits for Charter to commit the move and scoop it over him for the first English goal to make it 6-1 with under a minute left for Q3. Were we to witness the greatest of comebacks in recent history ?
Q4 answered that question. Not quite ! Though England tried to capitalise in the very first minute due to an Australia defender missing his scoop, the ball landed under the goalie in the scramble. On referral, a PC was denied as there was a backstick on the reverse hit of the English attacker. Australia kept changing the flanks by long slap shots across the pitch. A few passes were wasted and incomplete. David Ames of England gets a nasty hit and earns a PC with about 7 minutes left. Well, you know the drill by now. England faithfully repeated the only PC lesson that they had learnt, pushed straight to the goalie and was padded away. England did display some good defence by breaking a threading Aussie attack in the 56th minute. With about 3 minutes to go, Blake Grovers earns a PC after some nifty 360 circular moves. Hayward send the drag nice and low to the left and slots in the 7th goal. A last minute raid into the England D resulted in Liam Sanford of England, arguably one of the best players in the side, commit a foot foul and concede a PC. Hayward repeats his previous move with a faster and higher push to the far left and writes a final score line of 8-1.
Australia deservedly won the bronze medal and in the end won a number of individual tournament awards as well.
It was a highly disciplined performance by the Aussies who showed little signs of winning the seemingly consolation prize when they were just a stroke away from playing in the final ! Well done, Australia !
Going into the lemon break, it was evident where this match was heading. The English defence was as porous as a paper dosa. And the Aussies were feasting on the dosa at will.
Evidently, England were reminded that there is a stick in their hands and were also permitted in the rules to attempt to score goals in this match. An aerial ball into the Australian D was surprisingly mis-trapped by the defender and falling to a waiting English attacker who managed to secure a PC in the first minute after the break. Now, if you watch England take their PCs for the remainder of the match, one can be forgiven if they thought that the entire team attended only the first hour of the PC training session and bunked the rest of the day ! They kept repeating just one move, drag just below the knee level of the goalie right in the centre of the goal which resulted predictably in the ball being saved without much fuss, every time 3 minutes into Q3 resulted in a good attack by the English that was not only thwarted but more often than not resulted in a swift Aussie counter attack.
What followed in the next 3 minutes was just pure massacre. Brand earns a PC in the 32 minute by receiving a pass between the defenders. Of the PC, the English goalie did very well to save the drag flick by padding away to the left only to find the ball land at the unmarked Trent Mitton who deftly reverse hits into the goal. 4-0. On resumption, Mitton tackles the English attacker and after doing very well to retain possession passes it on to an unmarked Craig who approaches the goal, moves the ball one-handed on the reverse, goes near the penalty spot and quickly pushes it past the diving goalie in literally one move. No sooner had the pyrotechnics finished, did another attack initiate from the left thanks to the benovolence of the English midfielder who forgot that he had a stick in his hand and results in Craig sprinting down the left and with a superb 1-2, scoops the ball into the D just in time before the charging goalie, Gibson. Again, superb combination of team skills, passing and pace. Craig celebrates his hatrick in style and is mobbed by his mates.
England could have been forgiven if they were at Wimbledon. Score reads 6-0. 1st set over ! Australia was back at the 2 goals/quarter rate.
But, England did remember that this was a hockey game and they did not have their racquets in hand. A body check resulted in a PC for England. And guess what ? Yes, you are right ! It was dragged right into the middle of the goal for Tyler to pad away. It got worse with Liam Ansell of England seemingly pull a hamstring and hobble off with about 7 minutes left in the quarter. England then made a flurry of moves with Andrew Charter stopping a good hit at the goal, another ball being deflected wide and a goal also being disallowed due to a foul. Another rare defensive error in the 25 saw England string a set of good short passes resulting in the ball falling to an unmarked Middleton who waits for Charter to commit the move and scoop it over him for the first English goal to make it 6-1 with under a minute left for Q3. Were we to witness the greatest of comebacks in recent history ?
Q4 answered that question. Not quite ! Though England tried to capitalise in the very first minute due to an Australia defender missing his scoop, the ball landed under the goalie in the scramble. On referral, a PC was denied as there was a backstick on the reverse hit of the English attacker. Australia kept changing the flanks by long slap shots across the pitch. A few passes were wasted and incomplete. David Ames of England gets a nasty hit and earns a PC with about 7 minutes left. Well, you know the drill by now. England faithfully repeated the only PC lesson that they had learnt, pushed straight to the goalie and was padded away. England did display some good defence by breaking a threading Aussie attack in the 56th minute. With about 3 minutes to go, Blake Grovers earns a PC after some nifty 360 circular moves. Hayward send the drag nice and low to the left and slots in the 7th goal. A last minute raid into the England D resulted in Liam Sanford of England, arguably one of the best players in the side, commit a foot foul and concede a PC. Hayward repeats his previous move with a faster and higher push to the far left and writes a final score line of 8-1.
Australia deservedly won the bronze medal and in the end won a number of individual tournament awards as well.
It was a highly disciplined performance by the Aussies who showed little signs of winning the seemingly consolation prize when they were just a stroke away from playing in the final ! Well done, Australia !
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