“That’s their strength – to gain penalty corners and then convert them into goals”, Germany’s Florian Fuchs said.
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Gonzalo Peillat scored a hat-trick as Argentina beat defending champions Germany to reach the final of the men’s Olympic hockey final and Belgium saw off the Netherlands to stay in the hunt for gold.
The South Americans pounced on a German team who only squeezed into the semi-finals by scoring three times in the closing five minutes to beat New Zealand in the last-eight, 3-2.
The Dutch kept alive their dream of securing a third successive Olympic gold medal by overcoming London 2012 silver medallists Argentina, continuing an unbeaten run that began with their opening match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Before the final on Thursday, Germany and the Netherlands, the finalists in London, will play for bronze.
Germany’s goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi, right, and his teammate Germany’s Moritz Furste, left, tries to save a scored corner penalty goal during a men’s field hockey semifinal match at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. “We tried everything until the end, it just wasn t enough”.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Argentina is in another Olympic field hockey final.
During the nine days of competition in group A, the Kiwis lost 2-1 to Australia, drew 2-2 with Great Britain, came agonisingly close to holding top group qualifiers Spain to a stalemate before succumbing 3-2 after conceding a goal in the dying minutes and, in their final pool match, lost 1-0 to Belgium, who have former Bay hockey academy and Black Sticks coach Shane McLeod at the helm as coach. Mink van der Weerden reduced the deficit a minute before half time, but the result was put beyond all doubt by Florent van Aubel early in the fourth quarter, who guided the ball home after being perfectly supplied by the inspirational Thomas Briels to give Belgium one of the finest results in their history.
“It’s a historical night”, said Dohmen, reflecting on the match. It was a great game, unbelievable against Holland. “I think we’ve never beaten them in an official tournament”, Dohmen told reporters. “Now we are doing the ideal tournament, the tournament for life and it’s at the right moment, at the Olympics”.
The US team has also experienced a lot of development over the years, coming from tenth place in the world rankings, to fifth place. “We knew we could do this, but it’s still insane”. I watched in the past. “I can’t believe it”.
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Defending champions Netherlands will face Germany, while Britain take on New Zealand in the women’s hockey semifinals on Wednesday. The medal matches will take place on Friday (19th August), with the losing semi-finalists playing off for bronze at 12:00 before the gold medal game gets underway at 17:00.
