Olympic::Men's Hockey Day 5 Review

No surprises in semifinal line-up

Australia stumbled to a 3-3 draw with Great Britain but completed the semifinal line-up in the Men's Hockey competition at the Olympic Green Hockey Stadium on Tuesday, August 19.

Australia, gold medalists at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, finished second in pool B behind the Netherlands to set up a semifinal clash with Spain who topped pool A. In the other semifinal, the Netherlands who finished on top of pool B, face world champions Germany.

Great Britain nearly pulled off a win against Australia as they led 3-2 with two minutes left when Eddie Ockenden scored the equalizer. The two teams ended on a draw. Australia's other goals came from Bevan George and Jamie Dwyer while Barry Middleton, Richard Mantell and Rob Moore scored for Great Britain. Great Britain will take on the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the playoff for 5-6 positions.

As expected, the Netherlands steamed past Pakistan, winning 4-2 en route to the semifinals from pool B with 13 points. Pakistan's disappointing run continued as they slid to a third defeat and will play for 7-8 positions. Muhammad Imran converted two penalty corners for Pakistan. Taeke Taekema of the Netherlands converted two penalty corners and veteran Teun de Nooijer set up the other two goals by Matthijs Brouwer and Jeroen Hertzberger.

Pakistan will play New Zealand for 7-8 positions, their worst performance since finishing sixth at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

Germany continued their winning streak by defeating New Zealand 3-1 and booked their semifinal berth with 11 points, finishing second in pool A behind Spain (12 points). Looking a much improved side, world champions Germany whose Olympic campaign had a sluggish start, hummed efficiently to score three times through Timo Wess, Matthias Witthaus and Florian Keller.

The Kiwis fought on gamely in the searing midday heat, but could score just once when Hayden Shaw (NZL) flicked home a penalty corner in the second half. New Zealand finished on seven points.

Spain played smarter, if not better hockey than the ROK to win 2-1 with Santiago Freixa scoring both the Spanish goals to lead his team into the semifinals. The ROK fought till the end, but the few opportunities they missed hurt them. Their only consolation was a 69th minute goal by Yoon Sung-hoon, but it was all too little too late. Spain finished on top of pool A, ahead of Germany.

Canada, the Pan-American Games champions, just barely survived a highly physical 5-3 victory against South Africa that saw eight goals and eight cards, including a red -- Clyde Abrahams -- the first of the competition. Both teams played for pride and to avoid finishing at the bottom of the pool.

For Canada, Wayne Fernandes and Connor Grimes scored two goals each and skipper Robert Short the other, while Austin Smith had a double strike for South Africa and Lungile Tsolekile one. Canada will play Belgium for 9-10 positions and South Africa face China for 11-12 spots.

Belgium kept their cool after falling in arrears early to record their first win in the competition -- a 3-1 victory of China. China for the fifth match in a row, took the lead through Song Yi who converted a fourth-minute penalty corner, but failed to consolidate.

Belgium wore down the Chinese defense with ceaseless onslaughts to score through Xavier Reckinger, Jerome Truyens and John-John Dohmen to win the game comfortably.

China, with five defeats, finished at the bottom of the pool.