(Hockey news) The USA women’s task of avoiding relegation from the FIH Hockey Pro League was made that much tougher after going down 4-0 to Belgium at the final mini-tournament of the season in Antwerp. The Americans, who are presently at the bottom of the table, now have just two matches remaining to earn the three points with the essential goal difference to ensure their survival ahead of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the victory for Belgium means their search for the second spot behind the already crowned champions, the Netherlands, persists. Lately, in the day, Spain’s men were put through their paces by a determined young German side looking to make their mark, but the Red Sticks ground out a 3-1 victory in the end.
(Men’s) Germany vs Spain 1-3:
With any hopes of a top-three spot in the FIH Hockey Pro League long gone, Germany took the prospect to blood a team of up-and-coming players, an under-21 side with only 21 senior caps between them taking to the pitch. The youngsters gave a good version of themselves, forming chances while also being particularly outstanding in defence.
Guiding the way was 20-year-old keeper Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji who did incredibly well on debut to deny the Spanish on numerous events. He was finally thrashed in the fourth quarter. After Joaquin Menini obtained the ball into the circle along the baseline, a goalmouth scramble resulted in Alvaro Iglesias popping it in to take the lead.
The Germans reacted almost immediately with Leon Lindemann floating the ball through for Florian Sperling to fire in the equaliser with a sensational strike. A revamped penalty corner culminated in Rafael Vilallonga finding the back of the net for Spain with just under three minutes remaining in the match. With the Red Sticks now taking control of proceedings, another goal ensued soon after, Enrique Gonzalez on the end of a lovely team effort to seal the 3-1 victory.
Germany’s Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji was named Player of the Match and said: “I’m just happy with the match, for our team – we had an amazing performance. We are the under-21 guys playing against the senior squad of Spain so I think we performed very well.”
(Women’s) Belgium vs USA 4-0:
Belgium bashed off their first penalty corner of the match against the USA, a great flick from Stephanie Vanden Borre positioning the home team in front. They added to that tally in the second quarter. A cross in from Astrid Bonami discovered Delphine Marien whose reverse stick deflection doubled the Belgians’ lead.
While the USA combated hard throughout, Belgium was rarely disturbed by the USA, facing no penalty corners during the match. The home side upped the assertiveness in the final quarter. Vanden Borre guided in her second goal of the night off another penalty corner, and Charlotte Englebert slotted in the Belgians’ fourth off a penalty stroke to wrap up the 4-0 win. The triumph over the USA means the home team has leapfrogged Germany into fourth place on 27 points with two matches remaining.
Stephanie Vanden Borre was awarded Player of the Match and said: “We started a bit sloppy, we didn’t give the energy we had in the game yesterday. We just needed to put more energy into every sprint we needed to do but that’s not what we did so I think that’s the thing we need to take from this game for the next game.”
Also read: Dutch strikes off in Belgium as FIH Hockey Pro League goes down to the wire
