Black Sticks ‘not good enough’

Black Sticks coach Mark Hager is not a man to pull any punches.

Not even with many of his players in tears, and his own eyes red-rimmed.

For the second successive Olympics, the New Zealand women’s hockey team had finished fourth but Hager wasn’t about to make excuses.

The New Zealand missed out on a maiden women Olympic medal, beaten 2-1 by Germany in the play-off for the bronze medal at the Deodoro hockey stadium yesterday.

They amassed 16 shots on goal to Germany’s five, and forced six penalty corners to one, but just couldn’t finish off the chances.

Germany scored twice within four minutes in the third quarter, but the Kiwis hit back through Olivia Merry in a scramble following a penalty corner.

Four years ago in London, they’d lost 3-1 stage.

Hager’s disappointment didn’t stop him giving a candid assessment of where things went wrong, particularly after New Zealand’s 4-2 dismantling of Australia in the quarterfinals.

‘‘We do it well when things are going well, but when it’s tough and hard, that’s probably a weakness of ours,’’ he told NZ Newswire.

‘‘We don’t put the ball in the back of the net in the finals, in the to Britain at the same big games – that’s disappointing thing.’’

Germany scored twice within four minutes in the third quarter, but although the Kiwis hit back through Olivia Merry soon after, they couldn’t find an equaliser.

The problem, Hager says, lies in finishing off chances.

‘‘We had some really good opportunities, and enough corners but we were just not clinical enough up front again,’’ he said. the