Britain lose out to Dutch masters

Dutch celebrations as Britain lose out

Holland 4-2 Great Britain

Great Britain's hopes of an easy qualifying passage from their pool of the men's hockey competition received an early setback at the hands of defending champions Holland.

A plucky performance saw Britain twice fight back to equalise but the class of the Olympic and world champions showed as they emerged 4-2 winners in a Pool A match.

The turning point proved to be a missed penalty stroke by set-piece specialist Calum Giles which would have given GB a 3-2 second-half lead.

Britain fell behind to an eighth minute goal from open play by Teun de Nooijer but Mark Pearn wiped out that early advantage with a well-struck shot in the 15th minute.

Britain fell behind for a second time when, from a disputed penalty corner, goalkeeper Simon Mason pulled off a fine save, only to see Jacques Brinkman pick up the pieces and lift the ball over him.

It didn't take long for Britain to level through Jimmy Wallis's first goal for his country.

Clean routine

Britain failed to set-up a clean routine from a penalty corner but Wallis cashed in on good umpiring as the advantage was played, allowing Wallis to nip in and lift the ball over goalkeeper Ronald Jansen.

Seconds later Britain had a golden opportunity to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty stroke, but the mind games began as they attempted to bring on set-piece specialist Calum Giles.

There was a delay as the Dutch queried whether Giles' introduction was within the rules and Giles then had to suffer further torment as Jansen blatantly wasted time.

It had the desired effect for the Dutch as Giles pushed a weak shot low to the right where Jansen stuck out a boot to save.

Turning point

It proved to be the turning point of the match and to rub salt into the wound of the missed penalty stroke the Dutch took the lead for the third time with 19 minutes left.

Another slick penalty-corner routine saw Stefan Veen slide in to deflect the ball past Mason.

And it was Veen who sealed Britain's fate after the Dutch had coolly run the clock down.

The Dutch captain broke clear on the right and hammered a low shot between Mason's legs for a final scoreline which hardly reflected the pattern of the match.

Britain's men have four more games to qualify from Pool A, with Pakistan their next opponents on Monday.

In another closely fought contest, Germany beat Malaysia 1-0 with the only goal coming on a penalty corner conversion by Bjorn Emmerling in the 46th minute.

Britain's next opponents, three-times gold medalists Pakistan, survived a scare and had to settle with a 2-2 draw with Canada.

In Pool B, Atlanta silver medalists Spain were held to a 1-1 draw by reigning Asia Cup champions South Korea.