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BHUBANESWAR: Top-ranked Australia held their nerves to play a 3-3 draw against Argentina in a thrilling pool ‘A’ match of the FIH World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Monday.
Argentina, the 2016 Olympic champions, gave the three-time champions a run for their money by levelling the scores twice and taking the lead. But Australia stayed calm to score through Blake Govers’ superb goal in the 58th minute to share the honours.
Jeremy Hayward, one of the hat-trick heroes against France, scored in the 10th minute to put Australia ahead.
Argentina drew parity as Tomas Domene shot low into the left corner to convert a penalty corner.
Daniel Beale pounced on a rebound to hit home Australia’s second goal.
But the Los Leones equalised again through Maico Casella’s deflection from a Lucas Toscani’s shot, following a high ball, from the edge of the circle early in the penultimate period.
Another fine ball empowered Martin Ferreiro outside the circle. He went in and beat goalie Andrew Charter to put Argentina ahead in the final quarter. For the first time, Argentina scored thrice against Australia in the World Cup.
Australia took off Charter with four minutes left. Still, it required a special effort from Govers, who returned
from an injury, to get the spectacular equaliser. He intercepted a scoop on the left in one-on-one situation, took it inside the ‘D’ and hit hard into the post with a reverse stick on the goalkeeper’s right.
In another pool ‘A’ match held in Bhubaneswar, France rode on captain Victor Charlet’s brace to record a 2-1 grudge win against South Africa and stay afloat.
Meanwhile, riding on skipper Thiery Brinkman’s brace, three-time champions Netherlands outplayed New Zealand 4-0 for their second successive win and virtually assured themselves a direct quarter-final berth from pool ‘C’ at the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium in Rourkela.
In the first match of the day, Malaysia huffed and puffed before putting it across debutants Chile 3-2, also in Rourkela.
The Netherlands will play Chile in their last pool league match.
The Dutchmen should have won by a bigger margin but for the poor marksmanship by their strikers. The former champions were in the lead in the second minute, when Brinkman latched on to a pass from Tjep Hoedemakers surprising the defenders and the goals.
A couple of minutes later, the New Zealand manager made a surprising change as he withdrew the goalkeeper and replaced him with a forward. The Dutchmen made full use of this surprising change. In the 12th minute, Brinkman again scored after intercepting a cross from Van Heijningen and sweeping the ball into the unguarded goal.
Four minutes into the second quarter, Bijen Koen made it 3-0 as the Dutchmen virtually controlled the midfield. However, they could not increase the tally as the New Zealand coach brought back the goalkeeper in the game who brought off some saves.
Both the teams had lost their opener Malaysia to the Netherlands (0-4) and Chile to New Zealand (1-3), so this match was crucial for them and the Asian team just managed to scrape through.
There was no goal in the third quarter though the Kiwis tried hard to score. Sam Lane and Simon Child made a few incisive moves but could not penetrate the solid Dutch defence and in the last quarter, Tjep Hoedemakers scored the fourth goal to seal the match in the Netherlands’ favour.
Earlier, Malaysia survived a big upset and humiliation as they came from behind to beat Chile 3-2 to stay alive in the tournament.
Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2023
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