Kookaburras Through To Semi-finals
The Sunday Age
Sunday August 22, 2004
The Australian men's hockey team advanced to the semi-finals, a tense 3-2 victory over South Africa giving it a place in the medal rounds and ensuring its fate will not come down to the difficult final round-robin match against the Netherlands.
It will be the Kookaburras' fourth straight appearance in the semi-finals, having won silver in Barcelona and bronze in Atlanta and Sydney. But, although it was a slightly edgy performance, there were again enough signs to suggest this team is in contention for higher honours.As they had in their past two matches against Argentina and India, the Australians conceded the first goal. This time, the big-hitting South African veteran Greg Nichol scored directly from a penalty corner after just three minutes.The Australians took some time to reorganise before Travis Brooks seized on a loose ball in the circle and knocked the ball into the back of the net after 17 minutes. Two minutes later Nathan Eglinton nudged in a penalty corner rebound.But when Emile Smith scrambled the ball into the the Kookaburras net to level the scores, they again faced a difficult second half.Michael Brennan calmed a few nerves when he scored from another penalty corner rebound.The Australian women's team needs to beat the highly ranked Netherlands tomorrow morning Melbourne time to have any chance of progressing to the semi-finals. There are still a number of permutations that could affect the outcome. But if Korea beats Germany, then the Hockeyroos will probably need to beat the Dutch by at least two goals to advance.
© 2004 The Sunday Age