By Annika Breidthardt
LONDON Aug 6 (Reuters) – New Zealand’s women booked their
first ever ticket to the Olympic hockey semifinals on Monday,
knocking out Athens champions Germany with a goalless draw.
In the other pool, Britain need at least a draw in their
last preliminary match against favourites the Netherlands at
1900 local time (1800 GMT), if China beat Japan by four goals or
more at 1345. The Netherlands are through to the next round.
Germany only had an outside chance of going through to the
semifinals, having already lost to Australia and Argentina.
They would have needed to beat New Zealand, pre-tournament
outsider ranked sixth in the world, with a three-goal margin to
proceed, but a bit of bad luck – having two goals disallowed –
and a strong Kiwi defence held them back.
The Kiwis, only needing a draw, started off positively with
an early hit on post, but then focused mostly on defending and
launching counter-attacks.
Germany had the ball in the Kiwi net just two minutes before
half time but it was ruled out after a video referral called by
the umpire failed to prove Maike Stoeckel had got a touch inside
the circle.
In the second half, Germany enjoyed a strong run of play,
managing to hold the ball in the New Zealand half, but could not
convert any of their six set-piece penalty corners and a slew of
free game chances.
Germany called – and lost – their video referral on one
corner, the first push-in from the left in this tournament, when
Janne Mueller-Wieland raised the ball above the goal board.
Continued…
