Bloemendaal HC defeats Canadian men
February 22, 2011
In their third match of their California Tour the Canadian men’s national field hockey team were defeated by Dutch club Bloemendaal HC 4-2 Tuesday afternoon in Chula Vista.
Bloemendaal started the game with crisp stick to stick passes and held the edge in possession from the opening whistle.
Several dangerous runs from de Nooijer and Brouwer put Canada back on their heels.
A run from de Nooijer earned Bloemendaal their first penalty corner in the 6th minute. The Canadian Keeper, Antoni Kindler, made a save off the first shot. However the rebound bounced dangerously into the air from a Canadian stick and the umpire called a second corner.
A rocket of a drag clunked off the cross bar. Canada had weathered the first real attack from the strong Dutch Club.
A brilliant string of passes off a Dutch turnover helped to earn Canada their first penalty corner of the half in the 9th minute of play. Tupper kept Canada’s corner unit rolling by striking his fifth goal of the tour.
After Canada’s goal, Bloemendaall picked up their game. They played some wonderful possession hockey and stretched the Canadian defence to create field play opportunities. A mistake in the 19th minute gave Dutch striker Meijer the ball on the top of the Canadian circle and he made no mistake tying up the match 1-1.
de Nooijer doubled the Dutch Club’s score when he made a brilliant right to left drag to fool a Canadian defender and found enough time to rocket the ball to the back of the Canadian net in the 29th minute.
Canada managed to counter attack and looked dangerous on several occasions, but were held at bay by the Bloemendaal keeper.
The half time score was Bloemendaal 2 Canada 1.
Canada played some terrific two-way hockey for the first ten minutes to open the half causing trouble for the opposition’s defence, and offering nothing to the opposition’s attack.
Canada fell apart between the 45th and 55th minute and conceded two penalty corner goals at this time. Mental errors leading to some poor choices with the ball were to blame.
Ian Smythe got a goal back for Canada off a penalty corner for Canada in the 61st minute. Tupper’s drag flick was deflected into the roof of the net by a sliding Smythe.
The game ended by a score of 4-2 in favour of the Dutch Club.
Canada’s next match is against Bloemendaal Wednesday morning at 11:00 PST.
Roster
DNP: Geoff Houghton, Gordon Johnston, Nick Hignell, and Brenden Bissett
