Hockey: Greek protest adds to Olympic showdown drama

A protest by hosts Greece over their right to play in this year's Olympic men's tournament has added a fresh element of drama to New Zealand's first playoff match against South Africa in Madrid late tonight.

New Zealand's 4-1 loss to the strong Pakistan team yesterday consigned them to third place in the pool.

The top two in each of the two pools automatically advance to Athens. Third and fourth teams play off to decide fourth to eighth places, with the best three due to go the Olympics.

If New Zealand beat South Africa they cannot finish lower than sixth and will be sure of their trip to Athens in August.

Defeat would leave them playing off for the final Olympic spot against either Britain or Belgium on Saturday night.

The complication is that Greece have protested that, as host nation, they should have an automatic spot. Their appeal has gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

If the decision falls in Greece's favour, the seventh-placed finisher will miss out on the Games, despite having competed at Madrid on the understanding that seven spots were available for Athens.

New Zealand want to make the equation simple by beating South Africa and thus avoid the frantic final showdown and last-gasp off-field manoeuvrings.

The 4-1 scoreline was not an accurate reflection of the flow of a game which left New Zealand coach Kevin Towns fuming at the state of the umpiring.

He gave the Spanish and South African officials a serve, saying he was "appalled".

"There were just some shocking decisions."

New Zealand led with a Hayden Shaw flick from a penalty corner, but two marginal umpiring calls enabled Pakistan's set-piece master, Sohail Abbas, to convert penalty corners to give them a halftime lead.

Two more field goals early in the second spell effectively decided the game.

New Zealand had the better of the first 25 minutes and the latter stages, but could not convert opportunities.

In other games on a high-scoring day yesterday, India beat Canada 6-4, Belgium downed Malaysia 2-1, the Netherlands thrashed Japan 9-3, Britain outclassed South Africa 6-0 and Spain beat Poland by the same margin.

- NZPA