Day 2 of FIH Men’s WC dominated by a rain of Goals
Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: Day 2 of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 continued to thrill packed crowds in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela as New Zealand, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany earned comfortable victories, as Pools B and C got underway.
New Zealand took on Chile in the first contest of the day in Rourkela.
Early nerves from the Chilean defence allowed the Kiwis to grab the initiative and get 3 first half goals, but Chile were resurgent in the second half and grabbed their first ever goal in the FIH Men’s World Cup with a beautiful counter-attacking move to earn a well-deserved consolation goal.
It was the turn of the European giants next as each one of Netherlands, Belgium and Germany faced stiff opposition from Malaysia, Korea and Japan respectively, but stepped up their game in the second halves to register comfortable wins by big margins by full times.
Netherlands secured a 4-0 win against Malaysia in the second game in Rourkela.
It was then Pool B action in Bhubaneswar where Belgium scored 5 second half goals to win 5-0 against Korea, before Germany repeated the same pattern, scoring 3 goals in the second half against Japan to run away 3-0 winners.
Results: 1. New Zealand 3-1 Chile, Player of the Match: Sam Lane (NZL)
Umpires: Bruce Bale (ENG), Federico Garcia (URU), Hong-Zhen Lim (SGP-video)
2. Netherlands 4-0 Malaysia, Player of the Match: Jorrit Croon (NED),
Umpires: Sean Rapaport (RSA), Jakub Mejzlik (CZE), Steve Rogers (AUS-video)
3. Belgium 5-0 Korea, Player of the Match: Victor Wegnez (BEL)
Umpires: Jonas van’t Hek (NED), Javed Shaikh (IND), David Tomlinson (NZL-video)
4. Germany 3-0 Japan, Player of the Match: Christopher Rühr (GER)
Umpires: Raghu Prasad (IND), Gareth Greenfield (NZL), Martin Madden (SCO-video).
(UNI)