On the final day of Pool A match ups, the New Zealand Black Sticks women were ousted from semi-final hopes after the first scoreless draw occurred in The Hague. The Australian Hockeyroos held on to their 0-0 score line and it was enough to bring them one step closer to the medal rounds. Also happening today to wrap up Pool A play is Netherlands and Korea (16:00 CET), as well as Japan and Belgium (17:30 CET).
WOMEN Pool A: New Zealand v Australia 0-0 (0-0)
Only a win would do if the Black Sticks were to maintain any hope of making it to the semi-finals of the Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014, but the 0-0 draw that was played out between New Zealand and Australia was notable only for a high turnover of the ball and one controversial referral decision: goal scoring opportunities for either side were far and few between. Early indications were that this would be a battle royal between the two Oceanic rivals, ranked four (Hockeyroos) and five (Black Sticks), but instead cagey play and some poor decision-making rendered it a game that had goal-less draw written all over it.
WOMEN Pool A: Netherlands v Korea 3-0 (1-0)
The Netherlands will be relieved to have taken three points from their last pool A match after Korea worked ceaselessly to get a result in this engrossing game at the Kyocera Stadium. It all looked to be going the way of the Oranje when Naomi van As (3') opened the scoring with a rebound shot, following Lee Sinhye's initial save from a Maartje Paumen penalty corner. But the Koreans, led by their hard-tackling Kim Jongeun, had other ideas and if they had managed to make the most of their seven penalty corners then it could have been a very different story. The match finished 3-0, but the Netherlands team will be pleased they have a few days to recover from such a tough match before their semi-final match on Thursday.
WOMEN Pool A: Japan v Belgium 2-2 (0-0)
A goal-less first period followed by four strikes in the second half saw Japan's Cherry Blossoms and Belgium's Red Panthers play out a 2-2 draw in their Pool A encounter in the GreenFields Stadium. The result was far better for Japan than it was for Belgium, giving the Asian Champions a fifth place finish in the pool to secure a spot in the 9-10 classification match. Belgium finish bottom of the Pool, and will play in the 11-12 classification game.
For more results, schedule, highlights and more visit the event website at Rabobankhockeyworldcup2014.com
