Olympic::Men's Hockey Day 2 Review

Australia, Spain top their pools

While Olympic champions Australia cruised to their second victory in great style with a 10-0 win against South Africa, their main challengers – Spain, Germany and the Netherlands -- struggled on day two of the Men's Hockey competition at the Olympic Green Hockey Stadium on Wednesday, August 13.

The Dutch were lucky to come through 1-0 against Great Britain, as were Spain who overcame New Zealand 1-0, while world champions Germany were held to a 1-1 draw by Belgium.

After two rounds, Spain tops pool A with six points while Australia leads pool B with six points, ahead of the Dutch on goal difference.

The first match of the day turned out to be a mismatch as defending champions Australia pumped in 10 goals past South Africa. The Aussies reveled in the conditions as Eli Matheson (three goals), Jamie Dwyer (two goals), David Guest (two goals), Grant Schubert, Fergus Kavanagh and Des Abbot scored at regular intervals.

It was heartbreak for New Zealand who lost the game in the final seconds after having kept pace with Spain throughout. Spain were grateful for the strike from Santiago Freixa as it fetched them three more points to take them to the top of pool A standings.

A foul in 63rd minute cost Great Britain the last match of the day as it led to a penalty corner that Taeke Taekema of the Netherlands converted for the only goal of the match. Goalkeepers Guus Vogels of the Netherlands and Alistair McGregor of Great Britain lent the contest a touch of class with fine saves that kept the scoreboard blank until the 63rd minute. The Dutch will be happy with the three points which left them on level with Australia at the top of pool B.

The Asian Games champions from the Republic of Korea (ROK) extended their unbeaten record against China with a fairytale come-from-behind victory to pick up their first points. China squandered a 2-0 lead that Na Yubo and Song Yi provided with goals in the sixth and eighth minutes to suffer their second defeat. Jang Jong-hyun was the hero for the ROK with three penalty corner conversions sandwiched between strikes from Seo Jong-ho and Kang Seong-jung. The highly-physical contest saw three yellow card suspensions, two of them to Korea who at one stage were down to nine players.

Pakistan came together as a team to record their first win in the competition with a convincing 3-1 win over Canada. Belgium continued to haunt world champions Germany, who lost their previous meeting 3-4 in the 2007 European championship. The teams played to a 1-1 draw.