Australia in semis with clinical display
BHUBANESWAR: THOUGH SPAIN EARNED A PENALTY CORNER IN THE DYING MINUTES, IT WENT ABEGGING AS AUSTRALIAN CUSTODIAN TRISTAN CLEMONS CLEARED IT WITH EASE.
Defending champions Australia exhibited their penalty corner conversion skills by drubbing lowly-ranked Spain 4-1 to make the semifinals of the World Hockey League Final at the Kalinga Stadium.
A spirited Blake Govers converted two penalty corners in the last quarter to let everyone know that the world champions had done their homework. On both occasions, he hit the ball low and to the right of the rival custodian.
The other two goals came through shorts corners.
The difference between the sides was evident on Wednesday as Australia were off to a quick start with Dylan Wotherspoon darting into the Spanish citadel twice in the first minute itself. On both occasions, he was foiled by goalkeeper Quico Cortes.
This didn’t have an impact on Spain, who tried hard with a series of attacks. In the seventh minute, Marc Serrahima had an open goal but failed to convert it into a goal. In the 20th minute, Marc Garcia shot the ball home from the left flank to leave Australia in a shock (1-0).
This sent alarm bells ringing for the Kookaburras, placed third at the Hockey World League Semi-Final at Johannesburg this year, and they started to press ahead. After missing the first penalty corner in the 23rd minute, Jeremy Hayward converted the second one to level the score in the 32nd minute (1-1).
In fact, the drama began in the third quarter when three-time world champions took total control of the proceedings and scored three goals, including two in a minute. Aaron Kleinschmidt converted the team’s third penalty corner to take the score to 2-1, before Govers scored off back-toback short corners in the 50th minute to make it 4-1.
It was all over for Spain, which had a fifth-place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Marc Garcia sent a few long crosses to Enrique Gonzalez and Marc Salles but they found it hard to make a breach in the Australian defence.
Though Spain earned a penalty corner in the dying minutes of play, it went abegging as Australian custodian Tristan Clemons cleared it with ease.
WORLD CUP RUMOUR
The next hockey World Cup would be played on its scheduled time in November-December here at the Kalinga Stadium, and its’ all rumour that the mega-event is being shifted to the cities like Lucknow and Chandigarh. HI’s chief executive officer Elena Norman expressed surprise that she wasn’t aware that how such a bogus news could surface in the public.
BHUBANESWAR: