FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup: Malaysia gets better of New Zealand while the Netherlands toys with Chile

Three times world cup champions  the Netherlands became the first team to keep its slate clean in the group C matches by winning all of its three engagements with flattering margins, setting in the process a record  of scoring maximum number of goals in a World Cup match.

The Netherlands scored a landslide 14-0 win, the highest margin by any time, against the bottom placed and debutantes Chile. Chile ended at the bottom without a point though it scored three goals and conceded 20. The previous highest margin was 12-0 recorded by Australia against South Africa in the 2010 New Delhi World Cup.

The Netherlands, the only team to win all its pool games, scored 22 goals without conceding any. Malaysia, who earlier upset the applecart of New Zealand with a hard fought 3-2 win, finished a spot ahead of New Zealand in the final pool C standings. Chile, of course, took the bottom spot.

Now Malaysia and New Zealand will play crossovers while the Netherlands gets direct entry to the quarter-finals.

For the Netherlands skipper Thiry Brinkmann notched up a hat trick of goals. It was he who scored the 14th and final goal for his team. Interestingly in a tournament where penalty corner goals have been scarce than ever before, the Netherlands scored at least five of its goals through penalty corners.

Earlier, Malaysia recorded an exciting 3-2 win over New Zealand. The game saw the 2500th goal of the World Cup being scored by Sam Lane of New Zealand. Sam Lane, however, was disappointed as his team lost to Malaysia. Though the outcome did not make any significant difference to the final standing as the Netherlands with its big wins remained unreplaceable at the top. Second and third pool finish would not have made a huge difference for the Kiwis.

Prabhjot Singh