Hockey women stumble

The New Zealand women’s hockey team came back to earth with a bump today, beaten 2-1 by Germany.

After their encouraging opening match – a 4-1 win over South Korea – there was optimism in the New Zealand camp, even though the Germans are a well-drilled unit.

Things looked good for a start when a diving Petrea Webster scored after 10 minutes to put New Zealand ahead.

But after that the Germans dominated the match. They equalised just before halftime and early in the second spell converted a penalty corner to take a 2-1 lead, which they never relinquished.

New Zealand coach Mark Hager was disappointed afterwards.

“We fought hard, but in the end our set pieces were poor. They ran at us and we just need to execute better,” he said.

“They outplayed us in three of the four quarters.”

He said New Zealand really wanted a point from the German game.

“Now we’re stuck back in the pack, which is disappointing.”