Buddah's Blog
My 100th Test
Hey everyone,
This is the sixth instalment of Buddha’s Blog.
We played Korea in yesterdays game in a must win match for us. Every match from now on is a must win to advance into the semi-finals. That is the way of World Hockey at the moment and how tight both pools of 6 are with 4 teams from each pool in a realistic chance of earning a semi-final berth.
Yesterday’s game was extremely tough from start to finish with the team being dealt a severe blow before the game started with Phil Burrows our Captain being un-fit to play due to the calf injury he suffered against Holland in the previous match.
Our team worked really hard together, and I personally was very impressed with the young strike forward line we had in youth and experience. They all stepped up to the mark and combined really well on attack and pressing offence and earned us a corner and a penalty stroke which were coolly slotted by Andy Hayward and Dean Cousins.
We defended resolutely for large portions of the game keeping the Koreans chances to a minimum. In the second half we gave up a lot of corners but our defence stood up to the task and saved corner after corner!
With the game drawing to a close the Koreans pressed forward even more in a must win match for both teams. By doing this we had a couple of really good counter-attacking opportunities to kill off the game with Blair Hilton and Nick Haig going very close.
The game was all but finished when Korea earned a penalty stroke in the last 30 seconds of the game and when the final whistle blew there was a feeling of euphoria in the team. We know that it is only one step in the ladder we need to climb towards the semi-finals but it was a relief nonetheless.
There was an extra-ordinary moment in yesterday’s game. One of our ginger compatriots Ben Collier threw up 3 times on the pitch. The first of which was all over his hand at the top of the circle, and then again 3 steps later at the 25. I think this also helped out in defence as it was like a mine field in chunks splayed all over the field and the Koreans didn’t want to attack through any of it and I don’t blame them!
There were 4 special moments in yesterday’s game, Ryan Archibald was named “Man of the Match” for his silky performance and Dean Cousins picked up the “Man of Steel” award for having the biggest guns (biceps), sorry I mean best defender. This could have gone to any of Dean, Blair or Kyle in goal who had fantastic games in defence.
The other 2 moments were Kyle and I played in our 100 test matches for NZ. It was a special occasion for both of us, but we both said that the result was far more important than any milestone, and I thank all of our team for stepping up to the mark in a must win match.
We have Argentina who we need to overcome tomorrow to keep those chances alive. Argentina took the current Olympic and World Cup champions Germany down to the wire losing narrowly 4-3, so we all know the task in front of us is going to be a tough one. In the other game of our pool Canada were holding Holland to 0-0 at half-time but were overrun in the 2nd half and conceded 6 goals to lose 6-0.
Our rest day today was awesome. We went to the High Commission and had a really relaxing day playing croquet, cricket, cranium, tennis and fun by and in the pool. Cranium was interesting to say the least, Matt K and Joe B struggled in deciphering the clues. On several occasions they guessed what was being drawn but around the wrong way. Such as; a circle and diamond = DIAMOND RING & dream and pipe = PIPE DREAM.
Then tonight we had our traditional tour quiz night which went really well! Hopefully this day has helped us all relax and prepare for the must win match against Argentina tomorrow!
By the time I finished this Blog Australia bet Spain 2-0, England bet India 3-2 and South Africa upset Pakistan 4-2. This means that England and Australia have pretty much already qualified for the semi-finals.
Next Blog will have the push-up competition results in it.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers Shea