The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : The Netherlands wallops Australia to clinch title

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Monday, Jun 26, 2006

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Sport - Hockey

The Netherlands wallops Australia to clinch title

S. Thyagarajan

Kuala Lumpur : Elevating the competition to an extraordinary level of excellence, the Netherlands recorded its maiden triumph in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament outclassing the defending champion, Australia, 6-2 on Sunday even as India cornered a place on the podium in the evening.

Never in recent memory have the Aussies been subjected to this measure of embarrassment in a final. The Dutch were simply incandescent in every facet of hockey. "Our forwards were fantastic," said Roelant Oltmans, his face mirroring the satisfaction and happiness.

Prompted impeccably in the mid-field by Jerome Delmee and led commendably in the frontline by Teun di Nooijer and Roderick Weusthof, the Dutch toyed with the Olympic champion as though to obliterate the memory of the sequence of defeats since 2004.

Little did one realise that the Aussies were in for this kind of subjugation when Weusthof slotted in a rebound in the early minutes against the run of play. When Taeke Takema pumped in a penalty corner, the Dutch took absolute control. And thereafter nothing stopped them till the final whistle by which time the Aussies netted two consolation goals. It is not that the Aussies never got sight of the Dutch goal but goal-keeper Guus Vogels was unbeatable.

Keeping a promise

A podium finish that chief coach Baskaran promised emerged a reality when India prevailed over New Zealand by the odd goal in five after leading 2-1 at half-time. By any yardstick, it was a tight match despite the Kiwis having to miss their stalwart of a centre half Ryan Archbald owing to injury. Archbald missed the earlier match against Australia also that ended a 1-7 humiliation.

India's place in the podium, here last was in 2000. A hard working mid-field contributed immensely to the outcome. Right half V.S. Vinay put in a near flawless show. Equally impressive were Prabhodh Tirkey in the left and Vikram Pillay in the mid-field.

Goal-keeper Adrian D'Souza put up a splendid show; a couple of saves he effected were superb.

Two gems

The pick of the attack was Hari Prasad whose two goals were gems. The equaliser by Hari Prasad after the Kiwis took the lead from a reverse flick by Simon Child was a beauty. He trapped the ball when Brad Shaw fumbled with an aerial pass, swerved round the defenders, sprinted for about 20 metres and sent the ball crashing into net. His second, close on half-time had opportunism written all over. A long cross from Vikram Pillay caught the defence napping, and all that Hari Prasad did was to gently deflect the ball into the net.

A 2-1 lead was insufficient to predict anything, least of all a win when the frontline was missing easy chances. The Kiwis, expectedly struck, from a penalty corner when Hayden Shaw cracked the defence of Adrian. India forced three penalty corners. Twice goal-keeper Pontifex smothered the shots but the third stunner from Sandeep Singh went into the goal like flash.

Elated but not overtly pleased Baskaran appreciated the players for their team work. He admitted that a few grey areas remained to be worked upon.

The results: (3-4): India 3 (Hari Prasad 2, Sandeep Singh) beat New Zealand 2 (Simon Child, Hayden Shaw) HT 2-1.

Final: The Netherlands 6 (Roderick Weusthof 3, Taeke Takema, Teun di Nooijer, Ronald Brouwer) beat Australia 2 (Matt Nylor, Grant Schubert) HT 2-0.

Player of the tournament and top scorer: Roderick Weusthof (Netherlands); Man of the final: Teun di Nooijer (Netherlands). Fair Play Trophy: Pakistan.

Final positions: 1. The Netherlands, 2. Australia, 3. India, 4. New Zealand, 5. Pakistan, 6. South Korea, 7. Argentina, 8. Malayasia.

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