With the men’s Kookaburras considered a strong gold medal chance before the Olympics, and the Hockeyroos right in the mix, early losses to both sides put them on the back foot.
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When their wishes didn’t come true Monday, the disappointment was equally enormous.
The U.S. couldn’t overcome two first-period goals by Germany and fell 2-1 in the quarterfinals at the sunny, hot Olympic Hockey Centre at Deodora, dashing its realistic hopes for a medal.
Akashdeep Singh chopped in Manpreet Singh’s raking pass, and it held up until four minutes after halftime, when Belgium’s Sebastien Dockier dribbled to the top of the circle and, without a defender near him and the goal in the sight, shot back across his body and past goalkeeper Parattu Sreejesh.
“If we keep playing how we’re playing and believe in ourselves, have confidence and execute the game plan that’s going to get us through to that medal match”, she told NZ Newswire.
“Fair cop. We choked.if that’s how you want to put it”.
Some hockey fans tend to pigeonhole Shea McAleese as a player in the German mould but, it seems, regrettably the Black Sticks men desperately needed to clone a few more of the Hawke’s Bay worldwide yesterday morning to flip the Rio Olympics tournament on its head.
The Australians had medaled in six consecutive Olympics, claiming gold in 2004 and bronze in 2008 and 2012.
With the sun beating down on the field at the Olympic Hockey Centre, it was the USA women’s field hockey team that truly felt the heat on Monday morning. Asked if she had another Olympics in her, Falgowski, just 27, sounded optimistic. I watched on television all the finals. “We showed that again today, and we will do that a couple more times”.
Germany have also gone through already, with their opponent in the next round to be decided. Lisa Altenburg knocked in a backhanded shot high over US goalie Jackie Briggs to put Germany up 2-0 late in the first. “After that it was very hard for us to come back into the game”, he added. “All that meant was we knew we needed to go get some”. We’ve been there before. It’s not a big issue for us. “It’s pretty tough – we let that game slip away”.
“This whole year we’ve been getting the chances, creating so many opportunities but they haven’t been falling”.
“He’s opened our communication lines”, USA defender Lauren Crandall said.
With less than 10 minutes on the clock, Anita McLaren flicked a thrilling goal off a penalty corner and set the pace for the remainder of the match.
Any fears of a comeback were soon snuffed out by Flynn who volleyed home Stacey Michelsen’s cross and then Merry got a stick to Charlotte Harrison’s effort to squeeze it past Rachael Lynch in Australia’s goal to cap a dominant display.
“It’s a little bit of a disappointing way to go out but it’s just the way it goes sometimes”.
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“We’ve been building through this tournament and I’m excited about what we can do”. Their previous best was a 5th place in 1948, the year they made their Olympic debut in London. “Take nothing away, that was exceptional hockey to be on the other end of”.
