Ireland’s men’s hockey team continued to impress at the European Championships in Germany. They performed well against favourites England narrowly losing (4-2) outplayed France to win (2-0) and have just lost to World number 3 side Holland (7-4) in the best game of the tournament so far. Coach Paul Revington has produced a robust side with the ability to attack at pace. Its the attacking play thats really caught the eye of spectators and the European hockey press.Whilst a semi final place was always a stretch target with England and Holland in their pool, Ireland now play Russia and Spain in cross over matches with a 5th place target. Spain Olympic medallists in recent times suprisingly lost 3-2 to Belgium and now qualify for London 2012 along with Germany and Holland.Ireland must now wait until next years final qualification tournament to qualify for London, still a possibility on the quality of their play to date. Elsewhere the Irish ladies team struggle with their form at this level, but still have an opportunity to achieve the same goal as their male counterparts.They play play Azerbaijan on Thursday at 16.00 and Italy on Saturday at 8.30.
Match report: Ireland (2) 4- 7 (3) Netherlands ; EuroHockey Nations Championship (men)
To watch highlights click here
Ireland 4 (Magee 14 min, McCabe 22 min, Cockram 62 min, Watt 69 min)
Netherlands 7 (Taekema 4, De Nooijer, Bob de Voogd 2)
Ireland lose out to Netherlands in incredible 11 goal thriller in a game Ireland had to win by a 5 goal margin to keep their Olympic dream alive. The Dutch got off to a fast start scoring in the 7th minute from open play through Bob de Voogd but Ireland responded with a glorious strike from Eugene Magee to bring the teams level in the 14th minute. Ireland took the lead in the 22nd minute when McCabe was on hand to roof a rebound and put Ireland 2-1 up. In the space of 3 minutes the powerful Taeke Taekema struck twice from penalty corners to give Holland a 3-2 half time lead.
Taekema was again the danger and scored a further two penalty corners in the 46th and 51st minute to bring is own personal tally for the game to four and give the Dutch a 5-2 lead. The goal of the game came in the 60th minute when on the counter Teun de Nooijer lifted over Harte to send the Dutch side 4 clear. Ireland hit back two minutes later with a super strike from Michael Watt. De Voogd took his personal tally to 2 in the 68th minute but Ireland were to finish with a goal of their own when a Magee shot was saved but Cockram was on hand to tap home.
After the game Irish Coach Paul Revington said “He was reasonably happy with the with the way the 1st half finished and to score 4 goals was a positive but it was a little frustrating to concede 7” He went on to say that playing teams like Holland could only improve our standard but the priority now was to remain the division. Taeke Taekema’s penalty corners were the key difference between the sides. Dutch Coach Paul Van Ass complimented the Irish on being a fast improving side and Eugene Magee and John Jermyn have two world class players.
Ireland now go into Pool C with Russia, France and either Spain or Belgium (currently game on and Spain lead 2-0 at Half Time)
Their next game will be against Russia at 2pm on Friday (1pm Irish Time) and on Sunday will play either Spain or Belgium at 11am (10 Irish Time)
EuroHockey Championship (Men) results so far:
20-28 August 2011
Mönchengladbach (GER)
Venue:
Warsteiner HockeyPark, Am HockeyPark 1, 41179, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Teams:
Pool A: GER/ESP/BEL/RUS
Pool B: NED/ENG/FRA/IRL
Web: www.hockey.de/EuroHockey/EC2011
Pool A:
Team No.Matches GF GA GD Points Ranking
Germany 3 13 2 9 9 1
Belgium 3 11 6 5 6 2
Spain 3 8 6 2 3 3
Russia 3 1 19 -18 0 4
Pool B:
Team No.Matches GF GA GD Points Ranking
Netherlands 3 19 8 11 9 1
England 3 15 7 8 6 2
Ireland 3 8 11 3 3 3
France 3 2 18 -16 0 4
Pool C:
Team No.Matches GF GA GD Points Ranking
Spain 1 5 0 5 3 1
Ireland 1 2 0 2 3 2
France 1 0 2 -2 0 3
Russia 1 0 5 -5 0 4
Match Schedule:
Saturday 20 August 2011
14.00 A Germany v Belgium 3-1 (0-0)
20.00 A Spain v Russia 5-0 (2-0)
Sunday 21 August 2011
10.00 B England v Ireland 4-2 (1-1)
14.00 B Netherlands v France 8-1 (4-0)
Monday 22 August 2011
13.00 B France v Ireland 0-2 (0-0)
15.00 A Spain v Germany 1-3 (0-0)
17.00 A Belgium v Russia 7-1 (3-0)
19.00 B England v Netherlands 3-4 (1-1)
Wednesday 24 August 2011
13.00 B France v England 1-8 (0-3)
15.00 A Germany v Russia 7-0 (3-0)
18.00 B Netherlands v Ireland 7-4 (3-2)
20.00 A Belgium v Spain 3-2 (0-2)
Friday 26 August 2011
14.00 C 4A Russia v 3B Ireland
16.00 C 3A Spain v 4B France
18.30 SF1 2A Belgium v 1B Netherlands
21.00 SF2 1A Germany v 2B England
Sunday 28 August 2011
09.00 C 4A Russia v 4B France
11.00 C 3A Ireland v 3B Spain
13.30 3/4 Loser SF1 v Loser SF2
16.00 Final Winner SF1 v Winner SF2
Eugene Magee scores the opening goal against Holland.
Players celebrate after Geoff McCabe spectacular equaliser from a penalty corner rebound.
Ireland Goalkeeper Harte under pressure from another Dutch attack.
