Lausanne, Switzerland: The FIH Hockey Junior Women’s World Cup 2023 kicked off in style with wins for Korea, India, Argentina, Belgium, and hosts Chile. The Day 1 of the World Cup was a mixed affair with three one-sided matches and three edge-of-the-seat thrillers.
The first match between Korea and Zimbabwe was a lop-sided affair as Korea scored six past the Zimbabwean defense. Korea earned 16 penalty corners in the entire match, converting only three of them. The winning side had six different goal-scorers for them.
The second match was between the two powerhouses of hockey - Australia and Netherlands, which ended in a 2-2 thriller, with one goal each scored by both the teams in the last ten minutes.
Tatum Stewart broke the deadlock for Australia scoring from a penalty corner in the 12th minute. It was an evenly contested match till the 40th minute when the teams upped their game and made continuous attacks. The two top-ranked teams had to settle for a 2-2 draw at the end.
Indian women made history in the third match of the day as they beat Canada 12-0 to get their biggest win of the FIH Junior Women’s World Cup. Mumtaz Khan netted four goals while youngsters Deepika Soreng and Annu scored a hat-trick each.
After the match, Deepika said, “Our team has been working very hard for this tournament for the last one year. We made some mistakes today as well, but we will try to rectify all those mistakes and score more goals when we meet Germany in our next match.”
The fourth match of the day between Argentina and Spain was a cracker with Argentina holding on to the lead given by their skipper Valentina Raposo in the 22nd minute. They eventually went on to win it 1-0. Spain got 12 penalty corners but failed to convert any.
It was followed up with a Pool C match between Germany and Belgium with the latter beating the Germans 6-0 in a low-key affair. While the score was 1-0 at the end of the first half, Astrid Bonami and Louise Dewaet scored hat-tricks each to ensure Belgium’s win in a pool that also consists of India who won 12-0 previously in the day.
The last match of the day was breathtaking as hosts Chile put in some real work in their defense as they made sure that South Africa stayed away from their goal. The goal from Josefina Gutierrez in the 27th minute proved to be the difference between the two sides with Chile winning 1-0.
Play resumes tomorrow, 30th November at 10 AM, with England and New Zealand taking on each other at Centro Deportivo de Hockey Césped, Estadio Nacional in Chile.
To see the current pool standings after Day 1, click here.
To see the full match schedule, click here.
Match Results from Day 1:
Match 1: Korea 6-0 Zimbabwe
Umpires: Jianjun Chen (CHN) and Victoria Pazos (PAR)
Match 2: Netherlands 2-2 Australia
Umpires: Katrina Turner (NZL) and Magali Sergeant (BEL)
Match 3: India 12-0 Canada
Umpires: Minami Inamoto (JPN) and Kamile Mockaityte (LTU)
Match 4: Argentina 1-0 Spain
Umpires: Lizelotte Walter (NED) and Melissa Taylor (RSA)
Match 5: German 0-6 Belgium
Umpires: Junko Wagatsuma (JPN) and Kristy Robertson (AUS)
Match 6: South Africa 0-1 Chile
Umpires: Durga Devi (IND) and Sandra Adell (ESP)
