Hockey World Cup 2014: Brave England fall in semi-finals as Holland claim 1-0 win to advance to Hague final:
Full match report for the Hockey World Cup semi-final
between Holland and England in The Hague on Friday, June 13, 2014
The last time England beat Holland at a World Cup came 28
years ago and, in front of 15,000 raucous Oranje, the hosts continued
their unwavering dominance, advancing to Sunday’s showpiece final at the
Kyocera Stadium for the first time since 1998.
A first-half Mink Van der Weerden drag flick saw Holland
men follow the women’s side into the final, but the 1-0 scoreline might have
been greater after 70 minutes of almost relentless pressure.
Twice they hit George Pinner’s post, creating 10 shots to
England’s one, as well as 23 circle penetrations, double that of their
opposition, who defended resolutely. England will now play for bronze against
Argentina as they bid to land a first World Cup medal since 1986 in London.
“We had a game plan and it wasn’t far from it,” said
Ashley Jackson. “We stayed in the fight for as long as possible and then tried
to take our chances.
“Corner and deep defence is one of our strong points and
when we turn up in attack we can make the difference, but we’re not quite good
enough to be doing that every game.” It was Jackson who nearly scored inside 30
seconds when his instinctive, deflected shot from a Nick Catlin through pass
found the pads of Jaap Stockmann. Four minutes later, the Dutch found the back
of the net from the same ploy, but Billy Bakker couldn’t connect.
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