{"id":13268,"date":"2012-08-08T02:15:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T00:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/update-2-olympics-hockey-britain-in-first-semi-since-1988-spain-livid\/"},"modified":"2012-08-08T02:15:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T00:15:11","slug":"update-2-olympics-hockey-britain-in-first-semi-since-1988-spain-livid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-2-olympics-hockey-britain-in-first-semi-since-1988-spain-livid\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 2-Olympics-Hockey-Britain in first semi since 1988, Spain livid"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

(Adds FIH reaction, German injury)<\/span><\/p>\n

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

By Annika Breidthardt<\/p>\n

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

LONDON<\/span> Aug 7 (Reuters) – Britain’s men’s hockey team
\nreached their first Olympic semi-final in 24 years with a 1-1
\ndraw against Spain in a tense game on Tuesday which was mired in
\nlate controversy.<\/p>\n

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

Spain were awarded two penalty corners in the last two
\nminutes but the umpires, encircled by British players, changed
\ntheir decisions to give the hosts a free hit instead.<\/p>\n

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

At the end, Spain coach Dani Martin stormed onto the pitch
\nto confront the officials and keep his players from doing so.<\/p>\n

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

He threatened “serious consequences” if the organisers did
\nnot explain the disputed decisions and implied favouritism
\ntowards the hosts, who were cheered on by a 16,000-strong crowd.<\/p>\n

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

Earlier on Tuesday, world champions Australia booked a
\nsemi-final place after sending Pakistan packing with a crushing
\n7-0 victory that erased doubts about their billing as tournament
\nfavourites following two pool-stage draws.<\/p>\n

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

World number one side Australia will play reigning Olympic
\nchampions Germany on Thursday in a battle between the world’s
\ntop ranked teams, while Britain face the Netherlands, the only
\nside yet to drop a point, in the other semi-final.<\/p>\n

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

Britain needed a draw to progress while Spain, who lost two
\nkey players to injury at the start of the tournament, had to win
\nand were perplexed over why the umpires changed their decisions.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

(Adds FIH reaction, German injury) By Annika Breidthardt LONDON Aug 7 (Reuters) – Britain’s men’s hockey team reached their first Olympic semi-final in 24 years with a 1-1 draw against Spain in a tense game on Tuesday which was mired in late controversy. Spain were awarded two penalty corners in the last two minutes but […]<\/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-13268","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\/13268","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=13268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}