{"id":13179,"date":"2012-08-05T02:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T00:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/update-1-olympics-hockey-british-german-medal-hopes-suffer-blow\/"},"modified":"2012-08-05T02:06:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T00:06:00","slug":"update-1-olympics-hockey-british-german-medal-hopes-suffer-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-olympics-hockey-british-german-medal-hopes-suffer-blow\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-Olympics-Hockey-British, German medal hopes suffer blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

(Adds later matches)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

By Annika Breidthardt<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON<\/span> Aug 4 (Reuters) – Britain’s Kate Walsh returned to
\nplay on Saturday just six days after breaking her jaw, but even
\nthe skipper’s comeback could not save her team from a surprise
\n2-1 defeat against China that dealt a blow to the host’s Olympic
\nhopes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Britain, who had won their first three matches, now need at
\nleast a draw in their last group-stage match against the
\nNetherlands, who have already secured a berth in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

With a slew of unforced errors and little determination in
\nattack, Britain found it hard to penetrate China’s defence, and
\nsix minutes before half time Walsh and fellow corner-specialist
\nCrista Cullen wasted four consecutive penalty corners.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

While at the break it still looked as though Britain’s worst
\nperformance so far might have been enough against a Chinese side
\nshowing little ambition in attack, China came back stronger from
\nthe interlude and were clinical on set pieces.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Two goals from penalty corners, one by Fu Baorong in the
\n41st minute and one deflected into goal from short range by Zhao
\nYudiao, put China well in the lead with 24 minutes to go.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Just over a minute before the end, Britain reduced the lead
\nwith a penalty corner flick from Cullen that the strong Chinese
\ngoalkeeper Zhang Yimeng got her hands on but could not save.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We know we can play a lot better. Ball retention was pretty
\npoor for us today,” said Walsh, who played with protective
\nstrapping on her face after having a titanium plate inserted
\ninto her jaw on Monday and only leaving hospital on Wednesday.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Adds later matches) By Annika Breidthardt LONDON Aug 4 (Reuters) – Britain’s Kate Walsh returned to play on Saturday just six days after breaking her jaw, but even the skipper’s comeback could not save her team from a surprise 2-1 defeat against China that dealt a blow to the host’s Olympic hopes. Britain, who had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}