FIH Pro League: China-W edge past Belgium-W, Netherlands prevails over Germany on shootouts

Lausanne, Dec 1 (IANS) The new FIH Hockey Pro League season kicked off with two high-quality encounters featuring three of the teams that contested gold-medal matches at Paris 2024.

The women’s sides got the tournament underway in Hangzhou, with Olympic silver medalists China taking on third-ranked Belgium for the first time since their hotly contested semifinal showdown in Paris, with the Chinese once again prevailing in a shootout.

The Chinese have troubled the world’s best teams over the past year, most recently knocking Belgium out of the Paris Olympics in a semifinal shootout before losing narrowly to the Dutch in the gold-medal match. They started their FIH Hockey Pro League campaign with high expectations and bossed long periods of a high-paced first half before Xu Wenyu opened their account with a 20th-minute penalty corner strike.

Zou Meirong extended China’s lead in the 32nd minute, bagging a rebound from a penalty corner. The momentum then shifted away from China while Liu Hua served a 10-minute suspension through the third quarter, but Belgium struggled to take advantage.

The Red Panthers sparked to life in the final period though, Michelle Struijk finding the back of the net with a deflection from a well-worked penalty corner variation in the 50th minute. Belgium took tremendous confidence into the closing minutes, creating numerous opportunities before Justine Rasir found an equalizer from a penalty corner rebound with just two minutes remaining in the match. A tense finish failed to produce further goals and with the points shared, the match went to a shootout where China repeated their heroics from Paris to claim the bonus point.

Over in Amsterdam, the men’s tournament opened with the defending FIH Hockey Pro League champions, the Netherlands, taking on Germany in a repeat of the Olympic final. And just like in Paris a few months ago, it was the Dutch who prevailed, also in a shootout

Netherlands and Germany played out a close 1–1 draw for a share of the points before the hosts ran away 4–1 in the shootout for a bonus point. The Dutch most recently pipped Germany in a fiery gold-medal game at the Paris Olympics and got on the attack early in the rematch, calling on Alexander Stadler to save a drag flick in the second minute. Germany settled quickly though and started to stamp their authority on the quarter. Mauritz Visser was busy in the Dutch goal, saving an 11th-minute penalty corner and making two good saves from open play. The second quarter was a tight affair with both teams struggling to create opportunities until the final two minutes of the half. Stadler first denied the Dutch from a poorly struck shot with just two minutes remaining in the half, but he had no answer when Thierry Brinkman’s cross from the baseline deflected off a German defender to give the hosts a 1–0 lead.

The Dutch were very much in the ascendancy in the final quarter and only the post denied last season’s FIH Hockey Pro League top goal scorer, Jip Janssen, from opening his account with a drag flick. Janssen pushed another drag flick wide with six minutes remaining, and Germany were still in contention when they pulled their goalkeeper off with a little over three minutes remaining. Raphael Hartkopf found the equalizer with his 58th-minute field goal, and Germany very nearly snatched the win in the dying seconds. The Dutch recovered to win the shootout comfortably, much to the delight of the home fans.

-IANS

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