Belgium - Netherlands 1:5 (0:2)
Tuesday, August 7th 2007 - 20:30 in Mönchengladbach
A Perfect Tournament Begin for the Netherlands
The most interesting game of the day was the last one. The top hockey country, the Netherlands, against the strong 88 vintage Belgians in a neighbourhood duel. Both teams began cautiously the job in hand and for almost 20 minutes felt their way in centre field waiting for their opponents, backing each other up on the centre line.
Umpire Warren McCully (IRE) shows "Green"
© hockeyimage.net
Then the Netherlands were able to win more of the game and as a logical result Caspers scored in the 27th minute after De Voogd and Martens did the spadework. Belgium countered more and more, Dubois slipped and missed a lovely pass from Pangrazio with centimetres to spare. Caspers then profited from a Belgian defence mistake to bring the score to 2:0 in the 33rd minute. This was the score at half time, and maybe the goal difference was one too many, bearing in mind the evenness of the game so far.
Bas Campbell (NED)
© hockeyimage.net
The Dutchmen came back on the field last, but immediately let rip. Tack, the strong man in the Belgian goal, could avert Hertzberger’s shot, but just seconds later De Voord scored from a fine pass into the middle from Hertzberger in the 38th minute. Anyone now waiting for a Belgian offensive would be disappointed. The Netherlands continued to pile on the pressure and the Belgian U21s could only hope to ward off the attack. Not until the 53rd minute were the Belgians able to apply more forward pressure, and were rewarded in the 65th minute with a lucky goal. Vanderlinden pulled himself together in the turmoil and his by no means hard shot landed in the Dutch net. But the game had already been decided. Campbell cleverly got the ball from a Belgian defender after a bad mistake on the edge of the circle and from an inside left position just pushed it in. In the dying minutes, two yellow cards caused the Belgians to weaken unnecessarily. In the 67th minute Bakker got the last goal for a 5:1 final score.
Jeroen Hertzberger (NED)
© hockeyimage.net
The Dutch win was deserved, because the Belgians were too often passive. Maybe the score difference was one or two goals too high, but a clever, superior Dutch defence made life very difficult for the Belgian attack. Belgium must now win tomorrow against Malaysia to have a chance of reaching the semi finals. In this form, the Netherlands must be the favourites to win the tournament.
Goalkeeper Laurens Goedegeburre (NED)
Torschützen/Scorers:
24.' 0:1 Caspers, Q
33.' 0:2 Caspers, Q
38.' 0:3 De Voogd, B
61.' 0:4 Campbell, B
63.' 1:4 Vanderlinden, F
67.' 1:5 Bakker, B
Schiedsrichter/Umpires:
Estebanez, D (ESP)
McCully, W (IRl)
| Tuesday, 07.08.2007 | ||
| A | ENG - MAS | 1:2 (1:2) |
| B | IND - POL | 9:1 (5:0) |
| B | GER - ESP | 2:3 (2:2) |
| A | BEL - NED | 1:5 (0:2) |
| Wednesday, 08.08.2007 | ||
| B | IND - ESP | +1:1 (1:1) |
| A | BEL - MAS | 1:0 (1:0) |
| A | ENG - NED | 4:3 (1:0) |
| B | GER - POL | 4:2 (1:1) |
| Friday, 10.08.2007 | ||
| A | BEL - ENG | 3:2 (1:1) |
| B | POL - ESP | 3:7 (0:2) |
| A | MAS - NED | 2:8 (1:3) |
| B | GER - IND | 1:2 (1:1) |
| Saturday, 11.08.2007 | ||
| C | ENG - POL | 5:2 (2:1) |
| C | GER - MAS | 2:1 (1:1) |
| 1-4 | NED - ESP | 3:2 (2:1) |
| 1-4 | IND - BEL | 3:4 (2:2) |
| Sunday, 12.08.2007 | ||
| C | MAS - POL | 1:1+ (0:0) |
| C | ENG - GER | 3:6 (1:2) |
| 1-4 | ESP - IND | 2:1 (1:1,1:1) |
| 1-4 | NED - BEL | 7:1 (2:0) |
| Gruppe A | |||||
| 1. | NED | 3 | 2 | 16:7 | 6 |
| 2. | BEL | 3 | 2 | 5:7 | 6 |
| 3. | ENG | 3 | 1 | 7:8 | 3 |
| 4. | MAS | 3 | 1 | 4:10 | 3 |
| Gruppe B | |||||
| 1. | IND | 3 | 3 | 12:3 | 8 |
| 2. | ESP | 3 | 2 | 11:6 | 7 |
| 3. | GER | 3 | 1 | 7:7 | 3 |
| 4. | POL | 3 | 0 | 6:20 | 0 |
| Gruppe C | |||||
| 1. | GER | 3 | 3 | 12:6 | 9 |
| 2. | MAS | 3 | 1 | 4:4 | 4 |
| 3. | ENG | 3 | 1 | 9:10 | 3 |
| 4. | POL | 3 | 1 | 5:10 | 2 |
