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Netherlands, South Korea reach final Latest: Sunday October 08, 2000 05:32 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Defending Olympic champion Netherlands got a scare from Australia on Thursday, but survived a penalty shootout to advance to the men's field hockey gold medal game where the Dutch will face South Korea. The Netherlands and Australia finished scoreless after 70 minutes of regulation time and 15 minutes of extra time, and the Dutch won the shootout 5-4 when Dutch goalkeeper Ronald Jansen made a diving save on Brent Livermore's penalty flick. South Korea advanced to Saturday's final with a 1-0 semifinal victory against three-time gold medalist Pakistan. Coming into the Olympics as field hockey's winner of the World Cup, Olympics and Champions Trophy, the Netherlands was on the verge of being eliminated until Britain's victory against three-time gold medalist Germany clinched it a place in the semifinals on the basis of a better goal differential.
Both Australia and Netherlands played fast, expansive hockey, with the attack regularly switching from one circle to the other. The Dutch had two distinct scoring chances when they caught the Australian defense on the wrong foot but Remco van Wijk and Jaap Derk Buma shot wide with only goalkeeper Damon Diletti to beat. Van Wijk broke through on the left flank in the 24th minute with a fine solo into the circle but flicked wide into the side of the cage in the 49th minute. Skipper Stefan Veen sent a feeble shot into the bewildered goalkeeper in the 39th minute when Australian captain Michael York failed to intercept a backpass and almost conceded a goal. Australian veteran striker Jay Stacy and Stephan Davies shot straight into the Dutch goalkeeper after breakaway moves opened up the defense at the start of each session. There was only one penalty corner in the whole match, forced by Australia in the 61st minute, but the Dutch goalkeeper effortlessly padded away Stacy's shot. Aggressively close man-to-man marking led to a spate of cards. Veen got two green cards. Livermore was sent to the sin-bin for an aggressive tackle in the last minute of regulation time. In the shootout, all penalty strokes were converted until Livermore stepped up to take the last of Australia's flicks. His low shot was deflected out by the diving goalkeeper, stunning a capacity crowd of 15,000 into silence. South Korea owed its victory against Pakistan to ace striker Song Seung-Tae's penalty corner conversion in the 56th minute. That took the Asia Cup champion into the title match on its third Olympic appearance. Korea's hard-tackling game did not allow Pakistan's famed five-pronged forward line to function properly. The Koreans rushed out to block all six penalty corner shots by drag flick specialist Sohail Abbas. South Korean coach Kim Sang-Ryul credited the victory to his defenders. "Yesterday we chalked out a strategy about stopping Abbas," he said. "We decided not to give him any space and this strategy worked. "I had kept four players in the lineup to go one after another to take the ball away from Abbas. There was a risk of injury so I had a lineup of four," he said.
Krzysztof Wybieralski gave Poland a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute after Rafal Grotowski had dispossesed Ravi Kahlon and fired a pinpoint pass into the circle. Canada responded through a Chris Gifford field goal a minute into the second half, and took the lead three minutes later when Paul Wettlaufer found the net. Poland drew level again in the 45th minute from Eugeniusz Gaczkowski's field goal, but the Canadians had time to come back. With 11 minutes to play and extra time beckoning, Ronnie Jagday stormed into the Polish circle and was brought down in a crude tackle as he lined up the open goal. A penalty stroke was awarded, which Ian Bird converted to give Canada their 3-2 win. Playing in their first Olympics, the Canadians can be justifiably proud of their efforts, while Poland gave promise of better things in the future in drawn matches against Argentina and India. They now meet Malaysia on Saturday in the playoff for 11th and 12th place. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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