KEY POINTS:
New Zealand notched their second win of the Champions Challenge tournament in Antwerp, Belgium yesterday with a 4-0 triumph over Japan.
With a 2-0 win over India in their opening match on Saturday, undefeated New Zealand now stand at the top of the table as co-tournament favourites Argentina and England crashed to shock defeats yesterday.
World No 7 Argentina, the top ranked team in the competition, were beaten 3-2 by Belgium, ranked 13th, while No 9 England had a second defeat after going down 2-3 to India (8th) in other matches in the six-team tournament.
New Zealand's drag-flick king Hayden Shaw prised open Japan's defence late in the first half when he rifled a penalty corner shot into the top right hand corner in the 31st minute.
Skipper Ryan Archibald got the second two minutes later to give New Zealand a comfortable cushion.
Shaw added another early in the second half and striker Phil Burrows completed the scoring in the 50th minute.
New Zealand coach Shane McLeod said that the foundation for the victory was built by the back four of Blair Hopping and Dean Couzins in the centre and the Shaw brothers, Hayden on the right and Bradley on the left.
On offence, the Shaws constantly menaced the Japanese goal with their penalty corner flicks.
"Probably the outstanding thing was to keep Japan scoreless, and to have no goals [against us] in the first two games is a credit to the back four players - they have been working really hard at it and that's been great."
Japan, moving fast and dictating play in the opening minutes, had a couple of sniffs at goal but were unable to convert.
New Zealand also went unrewarded from a few looks at goal in the first half.
"The forwards were efficient but it wasn't really until the second half that we opened them up," McLeod said.
New centre-half Casey Henwood, who earned a warning green card in the first half, was asked to make a few adjustments to his positional play and the New Zealand attack began to flow.
Japan were pinned in desperate defence for much of the second half and apart from a handful of penalty corners provided no real threat to New Zealand dominance.
"Ryan had a solid game, Phil contributed really well and both were complemented by [midfielders] Bryce Collins and Ben Collier," McLeod said.
"To be top of the table and unbeaten after two games is great," McLeod said.
New Zealand's next fixture is against England and McLeod said the team would prepare for a backlash.
"I thought they would be our toughest opponents going into the tournament and I still think that.
"They possibly haven't played so well so far but they would be looking to play well against us."
- NZPA
