World Cup Semi-Final beckons for England
9th June 2014
BELGIUM 2 (1)
Thomas Briels 13 (FG)
Tanguy Cosyns 63 (PC)
ENGLAND 3 (1)
Nick Catlin 19 (FG)
Ashley Jackson 39 (FG)
Iain Lewers 66 (PS)
England are through to the Rabobank World Cup Semi-Final after a nail-biting 3-2 victory over rivals Belgium. It was the final group game in Pool A and England needed the win to take the three points and steal second place from the Red Lions who only needed a draw to go through. Iain Lewers was calmness personified in the 66th minute as he fired his penalty stroke into the roof of Belgium’s goal to give his side the 3-2 victory.
The evening marked 100 England caps for Beeston’s Adam Dixon and East Grinstead’s Ashley Jackson.
With a place in the Semi-Final secured, England must now wait and see who they will face as Pool B play their final group matches tomorrow. With host nation the Netherlands in a commanding position at the top of the table it seems likely that they will be England’s noisy opponents on Friday evening.
After leaking four goals against Australia in the first half of their last pool match it was clear that England had a point to prove from the off. It was a classy 70 minutes of hockey; Belgium just edged possession in the first half, but both sides looked threatening as they pushed forward and created attack after attack.
Thomas Briels broke the dead lock in the 13th minute to give Belgium a 1-0 lead but Nick Catlin was in sensational form and got a deserved equaliser just six minutes later as he fired home from the top of the circle to bring the scores level at 1-1. Mikey Hoare, Iain Lewers, Dan Fox and Dan Shingles were rock-like in England’s defence as time and time again the back line thwarted Belgium’s clever attacking play.
With only four minutes gone in the second half Ashley Jackson gave England a 2-1 lead as he bundled the ball home past Vincent Vanasch in Belgium’s goal. In the 63rd minute Belgium pulled the scored back level through Tanguy Cosyns, but when England were awarded a penalty stroke in the 66th minute Lewers was calmness personified. He roofed the ball past Vanasch to score what proved to be the vital goal for England to book their place in the World Cup Semi Final.
Quotes – England Captain Barry Middleton
On a team performance: “Everyone has to put everything on the line. Your body, your feet, your hands, whatever you can get there to stop the ball coming in. In a couple of games we felt we’d let ourselves down because we had plans but didn’t stick to them and didn’t quite play the way we wanted. Today we showed everyone the talent this team has. If you want to win big games you have to battle and do the dirty stuff and that’s what we did.”
On the likelihood of facing host nation the Netherlands in the semi-final: “We’ll see what we can do. Sally [Munday – Chief Executive of England Hockey] won’t like me saying this, but as soon as the bidding went down to us or Holland to host this championship, I would have loved it to be in England but when I heard it was in The Hague, with my history here I had a smile on my face. We said we didn’t want to just come and play in a tournament in The Hague, we wanted to come and do something special. That’s what we’re looking for. We want to play in front of a full stadium. We haven’t had it yet. We’ve played in front of good crowds but having seen it on TV it’ll be like nothing we’ve experienced before. Even at London [2012 Olympics]; the crowd are out to get us this time. I’ll get in touch with some of my friends at HGC and hopefully they’ll get the England shirts out so we’ll have a few in the crowd!”
Quotes – England Head Coach Bobby Crutchley
On beating Belgium: “Last year in the semi-final of the Europeans we lost to Belgium [3-0] and we were convincingly outplayed. They are a top team; a young, top team. They are going to be a threat in the back end of tournaments for a long time. We knew we had to play well and we knew we had to defend for long periods and be very disciplined with our shape and I thought for the majority of the game we were. I’d have liked us to have had more possession and put them on the back foot a bit more but those big games are often decided on digging in and fighting and I’m really proud of the team. It’s a fantastic result against a really quality opposition.”
On the injury to Tim Whiteman in the first half: “It looks like Tim has broken his thumb. We’ll get that checked and confirmed as soon as we can. I presume he’ll be unavailable for the semi-final.”
England men’s next game will be on Friday in the Semi Final of the World Cup at either 1415 or 1700 BST. England’s women play tomorrow in their final Pool B game against Germany at 1500 BST.