Pakistan Hopeful For Semifinals After Defeating Argentina In Olympics 2012

Pakistan outclassed Argentina 2-0 at Riverbank Arena, Olympic Sports Park here on Wednesday to keep their hopes alive for a place in the semifinals of the London Olympics 2012 Men’s Field Hockey Tournament. The scorers for the winners were Mohammad Imran (30th minute) and skipper Sohail Abbas (44th minute). Both goals were converted through penalty corners. With this victory Pakistan earned three points and are now placed at third spot (with four points) in the Pool A table after Australia and Britain, having six and four points respectively. The green shirts will now face Britain in their next contest on Friday (tomorrow). In other matches earlier in the day, Australia trounced Spain 5-0, Netherlands overcame Belgium 2-1, New Zealand shocked India 3-1 while South Africa played 2-2 draw with Britain.
Australia trounce Spain 5-0 : World number one Australia blew away Spain 5-0 in Pool A. The Kookaburras fired from the outset and never looked like being challenged for the entire match. Simon Orchard was best on field and had an impact right from the get go, executing skilful forward forays and setting up plenty of opportunities.
Russell Ford sent home the first goal with a brilliant deflection, 9 minutes in, after a great build up from co-captain Mark Knowles. Matthew Butturini scored the second goal but it did not come without controversy when the Spaniards appeal for the video referral was rejected, as it was deemed they took too long to ask the question. Amongst the heated debate one of the umpires pushed a Spanish player before play resumed.
After lining up without their captain Santi Frexia, who broke his arm in his opening match, Spain suffered another blow when another of its stars, Pol Amat was ruled out with a shoulder injury. But despite Spain’s woes the Kookaburras did not let up and went to the break 3-0 up after Simon Orchard netted a great ball from Matt Gohdes.
A well-executed pass from Chris Ciriello helped Glenn Turner slip the ball past the keeper to seal Australia’s 4th goal. Eddie Ockenden rounded out the conversions with a brilliant deflection off Joel Carroll’s penalty corner strike, leaving Spain shell-shocked at the Kookaburra’s dominance.
Dutch score second victory : The Dutch earned their second win in as many outings with a 2-1 victory against Belgium thanks to the efforts of Mink van der Weerden who scored both goals for his team. The Dutch now lead Group B with six points, while Belgium are still looking for their first point of the Olympic tournament. Despite dominating the first half, the Netherlands had to settle for a scoreless draw after 35 minutes. It was ironic that Belgium fell behind in the second half as they played their best hockey of the game but kept missing the target by inches. Jerome Dekeyser scored a textbook penalty corner for Belgium.
New Zealand stun India 3-1 : India turned in an insipid performance in front of a huge crowd at the Riverbank Arena and lost 1-3 to New Zealand in Pool B match. Having staged a good fight against former Olympic champions Holland on Monday, one did expect that the Indian team would play well on Wednesday. A goal up in early minutes through Sandeep Singh turned out to be very misleading. After that against the Kiwis, dressed in smart black, they could do little in either half. None of the Indian forwards showed any cohesion. On a pleasant afternoon when the floodlights were turned on because of a heavy cloud cover, the Kiwis were razor sharp on the field. Having beaten the Indians 5-1 in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in May this year, they knew what to do.
Andrew Hayward, Phillip Burrows and Nicholas Wilson were the stars for the Kiwis with one goal apiece.
Jackson earns Britain draw with South Africa: Hosts Britain and South Africa played a 2-2 drawn game in Pool A. Britain’s men let a long-held lead slip and were thankful to escape with the draw. After winning their opening group match, Britain went ahead in their second game through a penalty corner from Ashley Jackson in the 14th minute. But with 10 minutes remaining, South Africa struck with two quick goals from Austin Smith and Jonathan Robinson. But a controversial late goal, credited to Jackson, brought the game back to 2-2 after a pulsating close.