(Hockey news) Olympic 2021 Live Update: The Olympic Games 2020 saw four opening hockey matches in Tokyo with Belgium, Australia and India recording victories. Let’s analyze each of these results

Men’s Pool A

Japan 3-5 Australia

Australia are on a quest for their second hockey gold medal and made a winning start to their Tokyo Olympic campaign with a 35 win over Japan. Tim Brand and Tom Craig scored for the Kookaburras, giving them a 2-0 lead in the first quarter but Japan pulled two back through Kenta Tanaka and led at half-time thanks to Yoshiki Kirishita. However, the world number 1 ranked side emerged winners thanks to Blake Govers, Aran Zalewski and Daniel Beal finding targets to claim three points.

"Obviously we wanted to do a bit better”, said Australia’s Daniel Beale. “We go 2-0 up, then go 3-2 down going into half-time (which) is obviously not what we want to do. So it was really good that we were able to come out after half-time and get back to what we were doing well and just get the result."

Japan’s Kenta Tanaka said: "We were close to overtaking the Australian team in the heat of the match but in the end we lost so there is a bit of regret. But we have to take this momentum to the next match. Scoring two goals gives me a huge amount of confidence."

Also read: Indian men’s hockey team defeat New Zealand 3-2 in Pool A opener at the Tokyo Olympics

Men’s Pool B

Netherlands 1-3 Belgium

A four minute hat-trick by Alexander Hendrickx helped reigning world champions Belgium defeat rivals Netherlands in the opening match of Pool B. Jeroen Hertzberger scored a goal for Netherlands in the third quarter with an individual effort but Hendrickx fought back for Belgium with two outstanding penalty corners.

When asked how he feels about being considered as one of the best drag-flickers in the world, Hendrickx said: “I don’t think about that, what others think, I’m busy with what I do with my technique with flicking, thinking about something during the flick and then all the pressure falls away."

Netherlands captain Billy Bakker said: "It’s not the result that we want, but it’s also not the way we want to perform as a team and that’s more something that we’re not really disappointed (about), but we need to be more focused on our own quality.”