With wins over Argentina and Spain respectively, the Dutch and German teams booked their places in the semi-finals today. On pitch 2, Japan defeated England and Malaysia defeated South Africa.
Japan defeat England 2:1 (1:0)
In a lacklustre encounter between the two stragglers in pool G, Japan wrestled down England today to stay within reach of the top two in the pool and thus the 9 to 12 bracket of the final rankings.
Ryota Kubo put Japan on the scoreboard as early as the first minute, leaving the English fighting against the tide. Between constant back and forth, without any team being able to gain a significant advantage, the minutes ticked by without many scoring opportunities on either side.
Chris Griffiths finally gave his team back a glimmer of hope, sinking a penalty corner shortly after the break, but Ryota Kuba set things straight with his second goal of the day, establishing the 2:1 final score in the 58th minute.
Netherlands defeat Argentina 3:1 (1:1)
Collecting their second trio of points in as many matches in medal round pool E, the Netherlands dispatched titleholders Argentina today, playing with strict discipline and displaying once more superior positioning and team coherence.
After an initial twenty minutes of testing each other out, Jan-Willem Buissant baseball-batted a penalty corner rebound into the net for the long awaited first Dutch goal but shortly before halftime, Argentina equalized through Guido Barreiros Lopez, and it seemed like it was still going to be a tough battle between the two teams.
A double strike by the Dutch midway through the second half however tipped the fragile balance and made the remainder of the match an uphill battle for the Southamericans. Mink van der first put his trademark play on display with a powerful penalty corner, and team captain Klaas Vermeulen piled on the 3:1 to take the match practically out of reach of the Argentines.
Argentina still fought to avoid the defat but to no avail - the result robbed the World Champions from 4 years ago of their hopes of defending the title as the two consecutive defeats in the second phase put Argentina into the 5 to 8 bracket of the final rankings, while the Netherlands, with their second win and benefitting from the victory of Germany over Spain later in the day, booked their spot in the semi-finals.
Malaysia defeat South Africa 3:1 (1:1)
In the pool H encounter played in Johor Bahru today, Malaysia collected an important three points that take them from the last place in the table straight through to second, overtaking South Africa and Egypt.
Faced with being a goal down early on after Antony Vervoort converted a penalty stroke for South Africa, Malaysia responded immediately, scoring the equalizer from a penalty corner through the ever reliable Faizal Saari, bringing the match back in balance.
It was an open game then, two equal sides fighting hard for the elusive win but neither team could manage to score until late in the game, Malaysia converted two penalty corners in rapid succession to take the game.
Germany defeat Spain 5:3 (3:2)
Knowing that winning the encounter would put them in the semi-finals early, the Germans came out blazing today, putting three goals past the Spanish before they could get their bearings.
With two penalty corners converted by team captain Martin Haner and a goal from open play by Felix Oldhafer, Germany were up three goals after 18 minutes, and it looked like they were going to steamroller Spain.
Seemingly stunned into action by the third goal however, the Spanish finally started to resist and eventually even pulled back two goals to go into halftime at 2:3. Like the end of the first half, the second half was a battle between equal opponents then, with both sides creating opportunities and scoring goals but the Spanish never could make up for the slip-up of the initial phase when they fell three goals behind.
Letting the Iberians do their running, the Germans outplayed them with clinical efficiency, relying wholly on the strength of the team instead of individual skills, and carried their lead to the final whistle, even piling on an extra goal five minutes from the end, as the Spanish started to be pulled down by the realisation that the possibility of winning a medal in this competition was slipping from their hands.
The victory in today's fast and free-flowing, top level hockey match takes Germany into the semi-finals, taking the Netherlands with them, and confining both Spain and Argentina to the play-offs for the final rankings 5 to 8.
England - Japan 1:2 (0:)
JPN - Ryota KUBO PC 1m
ENG - Chris GRIFFITHS PC 42m
JPN - Ryota KUBO PC 58m
Argentina - Netherlands 1:3 (1:1)
NED - Jan-Willem BUISSANT PC 21m
ARG - Guido BARREIROS LOPEZ FG 30m
NED - Mink van der WEERDEN PC 47m
NED - Klaas VERMEULEN FG 49m
Malaysia - South Africa 3:1 (1:1)
RSA - Antony VERVOORT PS 16m
MAS - Faizal SAARI PC 19m
MAS - Mohd Nor Hafiq ABDUL GAFFAR PC 63m
MAS - Izwan Firdaus AHMAD TAJUDDIN PC 67m
Spain - Germany 3:5 (2:3)
GER - Martin HANER PC 2m
GER - Martin HANER PC 15m
GER - Felix OLDHAFER FG 18m
ESP - Gabriel DABANCH PC 27m
ESP - Diego ARANA FG 30m
GER - Tobias MATANA FG 42m
ESP - Gabriel DABANCH PC 45m
GER - Marco MILTKAU FG 65m
(source: worldhockey.org)
