Olympic::Men's Hockey Day 3 Review

Germany slides to third

While defending Olympic champions Australia moved to within a whisker of qualifying for the semifinals, world champions Germany dropped more precious points from their 3-3 draw with the Republic of Korea (ROK) after the third round of preliminary matches in the Men's Hockey competition at the Olympic Green Hockey Stadium on Friday, August 15.

Germany are precariously perched on five points in third position behind Spain (nine points) and New Zealand (six), but one ahead of the Republic of Korea (four).

Germany led twice in the match after recovering from an early reverse on goals by Philip Witte, Mathias Witthaus and Christopher Zeller. The ROK's hopes were kept alive by Yeo Woon-kon, Jang Jong-hyun and Seo Jong-ho. The draw saw Germany slide to third spot in the pool behind Spain and New Zealand while the Koreans are in fourth spot after three rounds.

Spain had to work overtime for their third win as China put up a solid fight. Their third victory in a row put Spain within sight of a semifinal berth. New Zealand kept themselves in the hunt with a timely 4-2 win over Belgium thanks in the main to goals from Simon Child in the 19th and 20th minutes, followed by a third from Gareth Brooks of New Zealand in the 30th.

The Netherlands, silver medalists at the 2004 Athens Games, moved a step closer to the semifinals with a hard-fought 4-2 win over Canada. Dutch penalty corner specialist Taeke Taekema took his tournament tally to six goals. He converted two penalty corners and a penalty stroke while Roderick Weusthof added the fourth.

Australia won a stormy 3-1 match against Pakistan, three of whose players -- Muhammad Waqas, Muhammad Saqlain and Waqas Akbar -- received yellow card suspensions. Pakistan wasted a solid start after Shakeel Abassi struck in the 17th minute.

Great Britain were unconvincing but were happy to take their second set of full points from the 2-0 win against South Africa. A couple of clever goals by James Tindall and Matt Daly pulled Britain through a difficult game, leaving the South Africans to rue the scoring chances they missed. Britain are third in the pool behind Australia and the Netherlands while South Africa, without a point, languish at the bottom with Canada.