Hockey: Black Sticks eyeing their best finish

New Zealand could still end up with their best finish at the men's World Cup despite a heavy loss to Australia in their final pool game yesterday.

Olympic champions Australia started to show their Athens gold medal winning form with a 7-1 win at Monchengladbach, Germany.

It was the Black Sticks' second loss after they went down 3-1 to Spain but they are third in their pool after wins over Argentina and Japan and a draw with Pakistan. Barring upsets in the final pool A games between Japan and Spain and Australia and Pakistan, New Zealand will qualify to play off for positions five to eight.

Anything better than a seventh finish will mean their best finish in a World Cup. They finished seventh three times - in 1973,'75 and'82.

A place in next year's top-six Champions Trophy will also be on the line in the classification games this weekend.

The Black Sticks' chances of qualifying for the Champions tournament will increase if either Australia or previous Champions Trophy winners, the Netherlands, win the final.

As Olympic champions and previous winners of the Champions Trophy respectively, Australia and the Netherlands qualify automatically for the tournament, meaning teams finishing seventh and eighth this weekend will be included in the Champions tournament next year.

No 1 ranked Australia, beaten by fourth ranked Spain earlier in the World Cup tournament, became the first team to qualify for the semifinals.

The ninth ranked Black Sticks were unfortunate to face an Australian side finally hitting top form, and four of their seven goals came from field play.

It took them only a minute and a half to confirm their rampaging mood against New Zealand when striker Jamie Dwyer slammed in the first of his two goals while the Black Sticks were still trying to find their bearing on defence.

Although New Zealand levelled after 20 minutes through a goal by Mitesh Patel, slammed in after a rebound off Hayden Shaw's drag-flick from a penalty corner, Australia led 3-1 at halftime and added another four goals in the second half.

"I think we were always going to be vulnerable because we were going for a win against the world's best team," said Black Sticks coach Kevin Towns.

"We made too many mistakes. I think our brains were fried halfway through the second half.

"But they gave it their best, it was a gutsy performance and that's all I can ask for."

Australia coach Barry Dancer wasn't overly pleased with his team's effort either.

"I don't think we played up to our potential," he said.

"We played poorly on defence. A couple of New Zealand chances went wide or it might have been different."

Black Sticks captain Ryan Archibald is one of the eight players nominated by World Cup coaches and a panel of players at the tournament for the player of the year award.

Others nominated are Pol Amat (Spain), Philipp Crone (Germany), Teun de Nooijer (Netherlands), Jeroen Delmee (Netherlands), Brent Livermore (Australia), Yong Bae Kim (Korea) and Stephen Mowlam (Australia).

- NZPA