Hockey: NZ go down to Netherlands

New Zealand scored an early goal and dominated the second half but it was not enough to stop the Netherlands winning 3-1 in their second match at the hockey world Cup in New Delhi this morning (NZT).

The Black Sticks went ahead after just 47seconds when captain Phil Burrows provided the finish to a good build-up from Steve Edwards.

But celebrations were quickly muted when the Netherlands hit back in less than a minute with a field goal of their own when the New Zealand defence failed to clear and Ronald Brouwer was on hand to sweep home.

After seven minutes, New Zealand fell behind when drag flick expert Take Taekema fired a rocket into goal, his 200th for his country.

Taekema had two further chances in the 15th and 16th minutes but failed to convert either. The scoring ended in the 29th minute when again the defence failed to respond and Jeroen Hertzberger hit home.

Stunned, the Black Sticks rallied, created a couple of decent half chances - to Burrows and Nick Wilson - and won their only penalty corner of the half which was quickly squandered.

The second half promised much as New Zealand took the upper hand.

But failure to convert either of two penalty corners and chances from Ryan Archibald which the goalkeeper kicked clear and one which Blair Hilton pushed wide cost them any hope.

"I thought we played some pretty good hockey but were let down by the fine details," New Zealand coach Shane McLeod said."

"We gave away some soft corners which didn't help. But, having said that I thought we defended their corners well.

"If we had been able to hold on for 10 minutes after that early goal it might have been a different story as they would have had to chase the game.

"At halftime we talked about applying pressure and tried to make sure we defended better.

"I thought we achieved that and were the more dominant team after halftime. From 25 to 25 it was pretty even but we didn't have any luck in the circle with a couple of shots which hit the post. If one of those had gone in, who knows what might have happened.".

Defending champions bounced back from a 2-2 draw with Korea ion their opening match to beat Canada 6-0 today.

It stretched Germany's unbeaten World Cup run to 15 (from 2002 through to this tournament) - the second-best streak, along with Pakistan (1978-1982), and five behind the record 20 held by Australia (1978-1990).

Any hope Canada might have entertained of taking the game to Germany quickly disappeared when Benjamin Weiss provided the finish to an expansive attack in the third minute.

Jan-Marco Montag, Max Muller, Martin Haner and, Florian Fuchs (two) added the others.

In another match played today, Korea beat Argentina 2-1.

- NZPA