Hard to take positives from loss: Hager
WELLINGTON: The Black Sticks were beaten 21 by Japan in their second game at the World Cup in London.
New Zealand were outrun and outfought by the Cherry Blossoms as they failed to take the initiative at the top of pool D losing a pulsating match in the sweltering English summer heat.
Japan edged possession in the first quarter with just over 53% and continued the high intensity in the second quarter.
After the halftime break the firsthalf pattern was repeated, endtoend play with Japan in the ascendancy.
It was no surprise when Japan opened the scoring in the 35th minute. Fluid buildup play forced a penalty corner after New Zealander Frances Davies was found to have intentionally played the ball over the back line.
From the penalty corner, there was nothing goalkeeper Sally Rutherford could do as Shihori Oikawa hit a thunderous strike into the bottom corner of the net.
Japan doubled its lead on 48 minutes after defensive frailties from the Black Sticks allowed Minami Shimizu in on goal. She rounded the goalkeeper to send Japan into a twogoal lead.
This seemed to spur New Zealand into life and the Kiwis had 59% of the possession in the final quarter. Relentless Black Sticks pressure led to a goalbound Brooke Neal shot being stopped on the line by Japan’s Mayumi Ono.
Despite a video umpire appeal from the Japanese, a penalty stroke was given. Anita McLaren duly stepped up and slotted away to the keeper’s right to make the score 21. With just eight minutes to go New Zealand sensed a comeback. Despite being down to 10 players after Olivia Merry’s yellow card the Kiwis pushed on and could have stolen an equaliser.
With two minutes to go, New Zealand threw everything forward and, after some rapid build up play, Kelsey Smith flashed a chance across goal, Japan happy to see the ball sail away from harm’s reach, it was too little too late.
Black Sticks women’s coach Mark Hager said it was hard to take positives from the game.
‘‘I think it was one of our poorest performances for quite a while. Saying that, you’ve got to give Japan credit. They put us under pressure but we didn’t handle it well enough.’’
He added it was no surprise about how energised Japan was coming into the game after its 32 defeat to Australia in their opening match.
‘‘We knew they’d come out hard and we didn’t. We did in the first five to six minutes but we just fell away and that was the disappointing thing for me. We lost structure and we went away from how we were pressing and win ning the ball and became individuals and that’s how we started to get hurt.’’
New Zealand now faces Australia in its final pool play match on Sunday. Hager was philosophical. ‘‘That’s done, let’s move on. It’s not the end of the world. We’re still in the competition we just need to play well in our next game.’’ — RNZ