Hockey World League Semi Finals Johannesburg
Ireland 1 (Sothern)
Spain 2 (Sanchez, Iglesias)
Spain edged out the Green Machine in a close encounter that saw some great chances for the men in green. Their World Cup dream is still well within reach as they now move into the 5-8 place playoffs.
The first of Ireland’s 10 penalty corners came in the 3rd minute as the men in green caught Spain off guard with their pace. A mis-trap and two follow up saves from Quico Cortes saw the Spanish keep the Irish at bay in the opening exchanges. Spain notched up 3 green cards in the first quarter and Ireland looked to take the game to them with their player advantage but Cortes came to the rescue again from two further Irish PC’s. Eugene Magee, a constant threat throughout, manufactured a superb chance for himself with a blistering solo run down the wing and into the circle but his final reverse shot skimmed past the post. Ireland edged the tie going into the half with David Harte hardly called upon in the opening 30 minutes.
But the Spanish appeared to come out with a bit more fire in the second half and Harte had to make a smart save following a crash ball into the circle. Spain won their first PC in the 37th minute and brave first running by Johnny McKee saw him block the shot but land hard on his shoulder, resulting in a stretcher being called for the young Banbridge player. Despite two great saves by Harte from the following PC, Ricardo Sanchez managed to flick the rebound into the net to give his side the lead. The game settled once again and the Green Machine returned to piling the pressure on Spain. Just-rewards arrived in the 44th minute from a powerful drag flick by Alan Sothern to bring the game level. But just a minute later Spain had retaken the lead with a mistrapped PC sent crashing back into the circle for the free Alvaro Iglesias to sweep in at the back post. Ireland were relentless in creating chances and fine efforts from Magee and Jeremy Duncan called Cortes into action once more. A 10th PC for Ireland in the final minute looked like the game was destined for a shoot-out but Cortes, superb throughout, was down low to parry away.
The Green Machine will take confidence from the chances they created with 25 circle penetrations and 10 short corners. Speaking after the match, head coach Craig Fulton said “We’re happy with our performance, but they took their chances on the day and we didn’t. It was a good game and it could have gone either way, we know the chances we created and on another day we’ll definitely finish those”.
The Green Machine now move into the 5th-8th place playoffs and will be in action on Friday (July 21st). 5th place will still guarantee the Green Machine a spot at the 2018 World Cup. Fixture to be shown live on BT Sport.
Ireland women’s hockey team compete against South Africa in the 5th-8th playoffs tomorrow (1:30pm Irish time), shown live on BT Sport.
Ireland: D Harte, J Jackson, C Cargo, A Sothern, E Magee, S O’Donoghue, J McKee, P Gleghorne, C Harte, S Loughrey, S Cole
Subs: J Carr, J Bell (Captain), M Bell, M Nelson, N Glassey, S Murray, J Duncan
Spain: Q Cortes, S Enrique, M Delas (Captain), P Quemada, V Ruiz, A Iglesias, R Santana, M Salles, J Romeu, M Serrahima, E Gonzalez
Subs: R Sanchez, D Arana, A de Frutos, A Beltran, M Fernandez, M Perrellon, I Torras
