Hockey: Black Sticks win tournament

Paul Woolford

New Zealand 4 Korea 1

Outstanding efforts at either end of the turf from goalkeepers Paul Woolford and Kyle Pontifex and strikers Lloyd Stephenson, Simon Child and Phil Burrows laid the foundation for the Black Sticks' deserved but hard-fought win over Korea in the final of the World Cup qualifying tournament in Changzhou, China, last night.

After some brilliant Woolford saves, it was a big call by coach Kevin Towns to replace him, as planned, by Pontifex in the second half.

But Towns was full of praise for his whole team.

"This was a great team effort. They stuck to the game plan," he said.

"There is not a player who has not given his all tonight.

"It is a great result, not only in going forward but in doing it in front of so many top coaches from around the world.

"It might not be quite up there with the silver medal in Manchester, but it's not too far behind," said Towns, who didn't want to single out players but did mention James Nation, Child and Ben Collier as players to do well in the final.

With the crowd singing and chanting their support for the Koreans, ranked two places higher at seventh, the Black Sticks were up against it but silenced them in the 17th minute when a well-worked team effort resulted in a tap-in goal for Stephenson after Bevan Hari had won possession on the right.

The Black Sticks added a second in the 25th minute when Burrows played the ball in and Child dived to push the ball on to the backboard.

Just before halftime, and after Woolford had denied the Koreans from their third penalty corner attempt, Stephenson scored his second with a penalty stroke after he had been taken out while attempting to deflect home from close range.

The second half was more of the same with the Koreans having their chances but being denied by Pontifex.

New Zealand had half chances which went close, including one Burrows effort which was disallowed.

Korea got one back from their fifth penalty corner when Seong Jung Kang flicked home in the 57th minute.

That sparked the Koreans into action. Korea had forced five penalty corners to New Zealand's none and it took some resolute defending to keep them at bay.

Not to be outdone in a match which produced some good counter-attacking by the Black Sticks, New Zealand had the last say when Bevan Hari scored after some good work from captain Ryan Archibald in the dyingseconds.

The Black Sticks, who had booked themselves a place in the September 6-17 World Cup in Germany with their 4-2 win over Malaysia in their last pool game, won through to last night's final with a 3-1 win over England in the semifinals.

That game, delayed a day after torrential rain on Friday night had left the turf under water, was dominated by New Zealand who went ahead 2-0 after 27 minutes when Child, who had also scored against Malaysia, struck twice.

England got one back in the 46th minute before Hayden Shaw made it safe 12 minutes from time with a drag flick from a penalty corner.

In the play-off for third, England beat Pakistan 3-1 while in the crucial 5th-6th play-off with the winner going through to the World Cup, Japan scored a goal in each half to beat early pace-setters France 2-1.

New Zealand, Korea, England, Pakistan and Japan now join Argentina, Australia, Spain, Germany, India, Holland and South Africa at the World Cup.