Hockey women have to settle for fourth

The New Zealand women’s hockey team suffered the frustration of finishing fourth at their second successive Olympics as a result of their 2-1 defeat by Germany today.

New Zealand dominated most of the match, creating more penalty corners (6 to 1) and shots at goal (16 to 5), but were unable to score. Shortly after halftime, the Germans banged home two goals within four minutes to grab the match by the scruff of the neck.

Olivia Merry pulled one back for New Zealand by converting a penalty corner in the 45^th minute, but it wasn’t enough and the Germans took the bronze. In London four years ago, New Zealand Great Britain 3-1 in the bronze medal match.

New Zealand coach Mark Hager was understandably disappointed afterwards.

“History repeats,” he said. “We miss out on a medal again, and it really hurts. It’s not as if we didn’t have our chances today, but we weren’t clinical enough with our finishing to put them away.

“They they got two goals and we ended up chasing.”

He thought New Zealand had been on top most of the game.  “To be honest, except for that period when they scored their two goals, I thought we were making the play. Even when we were down 2-1, I thought we had enough chances to force a draw.”

He said the Germans deserved credit for taking their opportunities.

“When they had their chances they scored; full credit to them. We had plenty of chances. There was an open goal in a breakaway one-on-one, and other good chances, but we didn’t score the goals.”

He said those sorts of matches came down to who wanted it the most.

“You would have to say that out there today the Germans wanted it more defensively.”

New Zealand captain Kayla Whitelock said she was “frustrated and disappointed” by the result.

“You can’t blame the effort the girls put in, but the execution in the attacking end was not good enough. When you are dominating the match, you should be leading.”