Field Hockey Team Gets 1st Win
From the Associated Press:
The United States women's field hockey team made it clear immediately on Saturday that it hadn't given up its dreams of earning an Olympic medal.
Keli Smith, who played at the University of Maryland, scored in the opening minute and the Americans went on to defeat New Zealand 4-1 for their first win at the games.
The goal 39 seconds into the match was scored on the Americans' first attack. The victory kept the U.S. in contention for a berth in the semifinal round with one game remaining in pool play.
"The tournament's on the line," U.S. coach Lee Bodimeade said. "To put that performance on the field was fantastic."
Angela Loy (Virginia Beach/ODU) scored in the 12th minute to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead. New Zealand's Joanne Galletly scored less than two minutes into the second half, but the U.S. countered quickly, with another goal by Smith in the 42nd minute and a final goal by Kayla Bashore in the 47th.
"When we conceded the one goal, we all just looked at each other and just regained our composure and stood tall and pushed forward," team captain Kate Barber said. "Then, we went back on the attack and executed some really nice penalty corners."
The U.S. improved to 1-1-2. New Zealand remained winless, but this was its worst defeat. New Zealand's previous losses, to Germany, Japan and Britain, had been by 2-1 scores.
The margin of victory was important for the Americans because goal differential is a tiebreaker, yet the U.S. nearly lost ground in that area in the closing seconds. New Zealand had a penalty corner and got off a good shot, but Barber backed up goalie Amy Tran and poked it away with one second remaining.
Bodimeade knew that play could have been the difference between medaling and not medaling.
"I'm looking back at it now," he said. "The skipper (Barber) put the hand up, thank goodness, and made the save. That's as good as knocking another one in at the other end. I was very proud of the way they defended that final corner."
By
Tracee Hamilton
|
August 16, 2008; 12:16 AM ET
| Category:
Field Hockey
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Posted by: cica | August 18, 2008 4:16 PM
The USA lost to Spain, 3-2 in double overtime, and ends up in eighth place. The big news is that China pulled a big upset over Germany and will be playing the Netherlands for the gold medal on Friday. I wonder whether the Post's reporters on the ground in China can tell us whether Chinese sports fans have taken note of these underdogs.
Posted by: cica | August 20, 2008 1:27 PM
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The US women battled the Brits to a scoreless draw today (Monday), ending their pursuit of a medal. They do have a consolation game against Spain (for seventh place) remaining, on Wednesday morning (Tuesday night here). Are there other Olympic sports in which such (essentially meaningless) games are played?