Niederlande - Spanien 3:2 (2:1)

Saturday, 11.08.2007 - 20:30 in Mönchengladbach

Persistence spells success for the Netherlands in the semi final

Even before the tournament began, both teams were regarded as possible title winners. And it promised to be a close, exciting game – more than worthy of a semi final. The first minutes belonged easily to the Netherlands, who hardly allowed the Spanish U21 to cross the centre line. In the fifth minute two Spanish defenders were caught napping and Jeroen Hertzberger found himself completely unmarked in front of the Spanish keeper Francesc Mata and was able to play for a corner. The resulting 1:0 score was completely deserved at that time. In the 20th minute Spain won their first penalty corner. Gabriel Dabanch flicked and scored the 1:1 equaliser, which was unexpected, but proved to be justified by the subsequent Spanish attack. The Spanish efforts were thwarted by the 2:1 score, when the Netherlands intercepted a Spanish attack and Mata was helpless against Quirjin Caspers’ onslaught in the 26th minute. The game limped on towards half time. The last bit of excitement was caused by the yellow card for Thijs Maarten for a stick foul, which many people considered to be very hard – he had already been shown a green card ten minutes earlier.

Klaas Vermeulen (NED) jumps obviously the highest © hockeyfocus.de
 

The Spanish U21 started better after half time, making new chances minute by minute. The Netherlands could only react. Roger Padros hit the crossbar and Laurens Goedegebuure had more ball contact than any other member of his team. The 2:2 equaliser after Gabriel Dabanch’s corner flick in the 62nd minute was well-earned. Spain slowed down the speed of the game so that the Netherlands had more possession. Three minutes before the end, the Dutch captain Klaas Vermeulen got another corner, which Mink Van der Weerden converted to 3:2. Spain countered and won a corner, but Dabanch mishit the ball, and the Dutch defence sent the intercepted ball away to win a penalty corner just seconds later. But there were only 49 seconds left and the game was over.

Marc Salles (ESP) © hockeyfocus.de
 

Although Spain had more possession, they weren’t able to turn it into effective offensive action and were sometimes rather hasty in their finishing, whereas the Dutch team played their socks off and didn’t let themselves be influenced by their opponents. A game with two equal teams but a luckier result for the Netherlands.

Marc Salles (ESP) tries to get to the ball © hockeyfocus.de
 

It was therefore understandable that the Spanish trainer Salvador Indurain considered that his team was ‘clearly better’ and he said that he anticipated meeting Belgium in the bronze medal game. Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel thought that his team’s early lead gave them an advantage for the entire game and made it possible for them to play their own game even when the Spanish team was applying pressure.

Sjoerd de Wert - just scored the winning goal for the Netherlands © hockeyimage.net
 

Torschützen/Scorers:
05.'   1:0   HERTZBERGER, Jeroen
19.'   1:1   DABANCH, Gabriel (PC)
25.'   2:1   CASPERS, Quirjin
62.'   2:2   DABANCH, Gabriel (PC)
68.'   3:2   DE WERT, Sjoerd (PC)

Strafecken/Penalty Corners:
Niederlande/The Netherlands _ (1 Tor/goal)
Spanien/Spain _ (2 Tore/goals)

Schiedsrichter/Umpires:
ESTEBANEZ, DIEGO (ESP)
WRIGHT, Peter (RSA)

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