Rio de Janeiro – Six games were played on Saturday in the men’s field hockey openers of Rio 2016. Germany, Belgium, Spain, Australia, and India won their respective matches, as the Netherlands and Argentina had a tie.
Canada vs. Germany
In a victory that has impacted many, Canada was squashed by current gold-medalist Germany by a score of 6-2.
The German team captain, Moritz Furste scored the first goal in the first penalty corner. Then it was the turn for Niklas Wellen to score the second.
Finally, Canada fought back, and Mark Pearson scored a goal, but then Mathias Muller made two consecutive scores, increasing the difference between the teams.
Afterward, Linus Butt and Moritz Furste scored again. In the last attempt, Canadian Keegan Pereira scored once, leading to the 6-2 mark.
However, the motivation came too late for the Canadian team, which paved the way to Germany’s victory.
Belgium vs. Great Britain
Belgium set the pace against Great Britain in their first match, leading to the Belgian victory of 4-1.
Jerome Truyens made the first goal for Belgium at the beginning of the game, and after having a “détente” for the first two-quarters of the match, Great Britain, thanks to Nick Catlin, finally tied up the scores.
In the third quarter of the match, the Belgian Tanguy Cosyns managed to use a penalty corner in his favor and gave his country the second goal.
Afterward, Simon Gougnard scored again, putting the marks at 3-1. Finally, the coup d’ grace came from Cedric Charlier.
Spain vs. Brazil
Rather embarrassingly, host Brazil lost 7-0 to their opponents, the Spanish team.
The otherwise quiet first quarter of the match had the fans’ of each team giving their all. In particular, the Brazilian fanatics took every opportunity to boo and jeer at their rivals.
The first half of the match ended with Spain managing to score a goal, courtesy of Xavi Lleonart; Brazilian goalkeeper Rodrigo Faustino couldn’t stop it.
Things would only get worse for Brazil in the second half of the game.
Come the third quarter of the match; Spanish Roc Oliva deflects a shot into the goal; mere moments after that, his fellow teammate Josep Romeu scores a penalty corner.
This was followed by two more goals, ending the third quarter with a 5-0 lead.
The fourth and final quarter was no different; even with such a massive lead against their opponents, Spain refused to slow down or calm down: two more goals in this quarter gave Spain it’s shining victory at 7-0.
Australia vs. New Zealand
New Zealand also lost against the current bronze holders, Australia, by a close score of 2-1.
Chris Ciriello efficiently used a penalty corner to give Australia its first goal. Then, until the second quarter of the match nothing remarkable occurred, until Australian Matt Gohdes scored again.
Finally, New Zealand attacked and scored; and Hugo Inglis had a chance of tie up in the last six minutes of the match, if not for the strong Australian defense.
India vs. Ireland
Surprisingly, India won over Ireland 3-2.
The Indian team attacked during the whole first quarter of the fame, but the Irish goalkeeper David Harte stood his ground.
With one second remaining, Indian Raghunath Vokkaliga finally scored the first goal of the game. In the second quarter, Rupinder Pal Singh took the lead and scored twice.
Irish John Jermyn made the first goal for his team, with only twelve seconds remaining in the third quarter. Finally, in the last quarter, Conor Harte made a goal, with only four minutes remaining and the marks kept at 3-2.
Argentina vs. Netherlands
In the last and very action-packed match of the day, Argentina and the Netherlands tied up at three goals each.
Through the first half of the game, the teams were 1-1. Then, beginning the third quarter Mink van der,Weerden scored the second goal for the Netherlands.
Severiano van Ass made the third Dutch score at the forty-second minute of the match. However, Argentine fought back, and by executing a corner penalty correctly, the scores went up 3-2.
Finally, Matias Paredes scored the goal that tied up both teams shortly before the match was over.
Medal Tally at Rio 2016
As of Monday morning, the United States was leading the medal standing with twelve medals, three gold, five silvers and four bronzes.
The second spot is for Italy, with eight medals, three gold, three silver and two bronze.
China is in third place, because although it also has eight medals, three are gold, two are silver, and three are bronze, which topples the balance in Italy’s favor.
Final match report: USA 2, AUS 1 #ChasingTheDream #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/s59CTiRqAG
— USA Field Hockey (@USAFieldHockey) August 8, 2016
Sources: NBC Olympics