Hockey: Final within reach for Black Sticks

Anita Punt celebrates with Samantha Charlton after scoring one of two penalty corners against China. Picture / Grant Treeby

Women’s team hopeful for Champions Trophy showdown but must first defeat their bogey side, England

The women's Black Sticks are two games away from making their first Champions Trophy final.

A 2-0 win over China in their final pool game in Mendoza, Argentina yesterday left the world No4 team hopeful of dipping their toes in uncharted territory at the weekend.

They play England in their quarter-final tomorrow morning. Win that and they'll have a semifinal against, most likely, Australia, with hosts Argentina or the Netherlands expected to emerge from the other side of the playoffs into Monday's final.

Their best Champions Trophy result was finishing third in 2011 in Amsterdam.

First things first, though, and England - or in their Olympic guise as Britain - have been a bogey side for New Zealand of late.

A poor performance in the bronze medal playoff cost New Zealand dearly in 2012. At Glasgow this year, they lost a penalty shootout in the semifinal, which rubbed out the prospect of at least a silver medal.

As well as New Zealand have done so far - beating Japan and China and holding the world champion Dutch to a meritorious 1-1 draw - coach Mark Hager is insisting it's back to scratch again.

"It's pleasing that players have stepped up so far during this tournament," he said yesterday.

"However, the pool play games mean nothing moving forward, we have to now win the quarter-final to make it all worthwhile."

New Zealand's goals came from two Anita Punt penalty corner drag flicks in the first half.

However Hager, happy with the first half - "very good, the best we've played for a while" - was frowning over the second-half effort.

"Whether it was the heat, or Chinese pressure, we did capitulate a little bit and tried to run the ball a bit too much. But defensively the girls hung in there and I thought did a pretty good job."

With key defender Liz Thompson absent after rolling an ankle on a stick at training the day before, the defence needed some rejigging.

Classy attacker Stacey Michelsen dropped into a more defensive right-sided role and did a strong job, while others like Brooke Neal and Ella Gunson were resolute behind recalled goalkeeper Sally Rutherford, who made key saves, particularly very early and in the closing minutes.

Besides Thompson, the only other player with a minor injury worry is energetic attacker Petrea Webster, who has a corked thigh but should be ready for tomorrow's clutch game.

Tale of two teams
New Zealand's record v England/Great Britain since 2010

Champions Trophy, Nottingham 2010: drew 2-2

Commonwealth Games New Delhi 2010: won 4-1

Four Nations, Cordoba, Argentina 2010: lost 2-0

Olympic Games, London 2012: lost 3-1

Unofficial series 2013: win, loss, draw

Three Nations, San Diego 2014: lost 2-1, won 1-0

Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014: lost 3-1 on penalty shootout