Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Men's Hockey: Pakistan, India fall to defeat

Getty Images / Getty Images Europe
Hockey News: Pakistan vs Australia.


Australia re-established their reputation as the team to fear with a 7-0 demolition of Pakistan to confirm their place in the Olympic semi-finals as Pool A winners.
For the third time in five matches the Kookaburras scored five or more in a match - hitting seven for a second time - to finish with 23 goals to their tally.
Not content with having the best attacking record in the tournament they also are the strongest defensively, having let in just five which all came as they conceded leads to draw with Argentina and Great Britain.
They will now play Germany, the runners-up from Pool B.
Liam de Young turned in a fifth-minute penalty corner rebound before within seconds Matt Butturini, on his 25th birthday, was fouled and Mark Knowles converted from the penalty spot.
In a six-minute spell before half-time Chris Ciriello powerfully flicked home a penalty corner before smashing a brilliant reverse-stick shot past static goalkeeper Imran Shah from the top of the circle.
Pakistan had a chance to get on the scoresheet early in the second half but Muhammad Rizwan snr's shot was saved by Nathan Burgers.
Australia were at their clinical best, however, and when Russell Ford cleverly dinked the ball past Muhammad Irfan his blistering shot flew past Shah and in off the underside of the crossbar.
Jamie Dwyer's reverse-stick shot on the turn from the top of the circle was nowhere near as powerful but the goalkeeper misjudged the bounce and conceded a sixth.
Glenn Turner complete the rout two minutes from the end when he slid in to convert Eddie Ockenden's cross after a swift passing move.

Eight-time Olympic champions India's miserable run continued as they slumped to a 0 - 3 defeat to Belgium, their fifth successive defeat to compound their worst run in the tournament's history.
The Asian side already knew they would finish bottom of Pool B but the result against Belgium merely highlighted their current difficulties.
Jerome Dekeyser's unstoppable blast in the first half was added to by Gauthier Boccard and Tom Boon after the break.
Australian coach Michael Nobbs did not attend the post-match press conference and assistant Mohammed Riaz Nabi admitted he did not know his exact whereabouts.
After their previous match Nobbs blamed the players for underperforming and Nabi admitted there were failures at both ends of the pitch.
"We have been continuously losing games and morale is totally down," he said.
"We had some chances but if you don't score goals you can't come back."
Asked whether he could identify what the major issue was he added: "The major problem is we are not defending well and not scoring."
Discounting that they did not qualify for Beijing four years ago India are on course for their lowest Olympic finish - which was eighth in Atlanta in 1996.
Holland finished their Pool B campaign with a 4-2 win over South Korea to keep their 100% record after a fifth successive victory. The win also helped European rivals Germany qualify for the semi-finals.
The Dutch had already made the last four, but Korea had to win to force Germany to get a result in the late game.
Argentina ensured they avoided the last-place play-off as they came from behind to win 6-3 against South Africa in a match which equalled the highest scoring fixture of the tournament.
On Sunday South Africa lost a 5-4 thriller to Pakistan and they have now conceded 22 goals in five matches, finishing bottom of Pool A.
They will go on to face eight-time champions India in the unwanted battle to decide who finishes last

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