Bhubaneswar: World No. 3 Netherlands on Thursday became the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023, completing their league engagements with a 14-0 thrashing of Chile at the Kalinga Stadium, here .
The Netherlands, the three-time winners of the Men’s World Cup, finished unbeaten in Group C with nine points from three wins. Malaysia upset the higher-ranked New Zealand 3-2 in another Pool C match to finish second in the standings with six points from two wins. New Zealand, ranked 9th — two spots ahead of Malaysia, ended third with three points as Chile finished with zero points after three defeats.
The Netherlands thus sealed a direct berth in the quarterfinals while Malaysia and New Zealand will go through the crossover matches.
Having defeated Malaysia and New Zealand in their previous matches, the Netherlands rode on a hat-trick of goals by drag-flicker Jip Janssen, who scored four goals in all, and Thierry Brinkman and a brace of goals by Bijen Koen to secure the biggest win of the tournament so far.
Janssen opened the scoring in the 6th minute off their first penalty corner and then added goals in the 29th minute, 34th min and 44th minutes as the Dutch scored at will against Chile, who were totally outclassed and overwhelmed by their opponents.
Brinkman scored his first goal in the 25th minute and added two more in the 33rd and 5th min, off a penalty corner, to complete his triple. Bijen struck in the 40th and 45th minute as the Netherlands completely dominated the match.
Derck De Vilder (22nd in), Thijs Van Dam (23rd min), Terrance Pieters (37th min), Justen Blok (42nd min) and Teun Beins (58th min) contributed a goal each to the Netherlands’ score.
The Dutch virtually parked themselves in Chile’s half of the turf and earned 17 penalty corners in all, of which they converted six.
In the final quarter, Chile managed to make some good attacks and bagged two penalty corners but could not capitalise on them.
(IANS)
