Aussies take on nemesis
THE Hockeyroos will play world No.1 the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup semifinals in London after the Dutch beat England 2-0 yesterday to secure a spot in the final four.
Australia will need to end a period of Dutch dominance to progress to the final, having not defeated the reigning world champions in 14 games, dating back to February 2012.
The winner of the Australia-Netherlands semi-final at 11pm tonight will play either Ireland (16th) or Spain (11th) in the decider.
Australia reached the semifinals after a dramatic 4-3 penalty shootout win against Argentina on Thursday.
Hockeyroos captain Emily Smith said the team would not be content with simply reaching the last four.
“We’ve celebrated but we’re going to the World Cup semifinals so we’ve got another job to do and to focus on our next opponent,” Smith said.
The semi-final is a repeat of the 2014 World Cup final where the Dutch triumphed 2-0 in The Hague. Only six members of that Australian team remain in this group.
The Netherlands have triumphed in the past 11 meetings, dating back to a 2-2 draw between the sides in South Africa in February 2013. The last meeting between the two sides ended 2-0 to the Netherlands at the International Festival of Hockey in Melbourne in November.
Smith said the young team, which boasts three players from the Gold/Tweed region, Rosie Malone, Maddy Fitzpatrick and Savannah Fitzpatrick, had grown since that encounter, particularly evolving after finishing with the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April offering reason for hope.
“We’ve worked extremely hard especially since Comm Games,” the Crookwell product said.
“To be able to execute the game plan against Argentina to keep them goalless and then execute in the pressure moments is great.
“We came in with the belief we could get the result. I’m proud that we did step up and get that final result.”