Capital teams pay the penalty
A TALE of two shootouts left Capital’s women still pursuing a national title but the highly rated men’s team lamenting what went wrong.
Both lost in penalty shootouts in the final round of the national hockey league at North Harbour yesterday. Capital women clung on to fourth spot to book a semifinal against Auckland tomorrow while Capital men tumbled out of the top four when North Harbour beat Canterbury.
Women’s coach Hugh Rosemergy said it was ‘‘a huge sense of relief’’ when his charges drew 2-2 with former leaders Canterbury, before losing the shootout 4-2. A draw was enough for a competition point and made their semifinal spot safe.
Capital rattled in 22 goals in seven roundrobin matches, three more than the next highest tally by Auckland. Their only blips were one-goal defeats to Auckland and North Harbour, leaving them confident of making Sunday’s decider.
‘‘The most impressive thing is not just the amount of goals but the spread. All our strikers and most of our midfield have scored, so we’re not relying on one or two players to keep us in the game,’’ Rosemergy said. ‘‘Kat [O’Callaghan] remains a dominant force and the way the midfield are playing together — Else [Groen], Anita [Punt] and Aniwaka [Roberts] — is brilliant, they’re hard for any team to deal with.’’
The dreaded shootout, where players have eight seconds to beat the goalkeeper from 25m out, will be the biggest work-on after some shaky moments.
Capital trailed Canterbury 2-1 but kept their cool and levelled with eight minutes to go via a penalty corner, tapped in by Groen.
The Sean Dancer-coached men’s side rued a three-match losing streak midway through the round robin before recovering to draw 2-2 with leaders Auckland yesterday. Matt L’Huillier and Stephen Jenness were the goalscorers before England international Simon Egerton levelled with 20 minutes left. Auckland won the shootout 4-2.
It left Capital clinging on to fourth but needing other results to go their way. It didn’t happen and when Harbour and Midlands got home in the later matches, it was curtains.