Hockey: Harrison hammers it home for late win

New Zealand 3
South Korea 2

A breakthrough bronze for the Black Sticks at the Champions Trophy in Amsterdam yesterday has catapulted Mark Hager's team into medal contention at next year's Olympics but, as ever, the cagey coach was not getting ahead of himself.

After joining his young team - average age just 23 - in celebrating their last-gasp 3-2 win over South Korea to claim the greatest international result for New Zealand women's hockey, Hager was realistic enough to acknowledge the gap between the top two - the Netherlands and Argentina - and the rest.

"Teams ranked between three and 10 or 12 in the world are always good chances to win medals," said Hager after watching the dramatic final in which Argentina scored in the opening 15 seconds and raced to 3-0 before the hosts, with three clinical penalty corner strikes, got back to 3-3, then went on to win a tense shootout 3-2 to claim gold.

That game was a step up from what the Koreans and Black Sticks had shown in the bronze scrap and backed Hager's claim that there is still work to do if they are to close that gap.

But that should in no way detract from the Black Sticks' showing.

They were the only team to take a point from the Dutch - holding them to a scoreless draw in the last round of pool play to book their place in the top four.

In that game and in the second half against Argentina in post-section when they fought back from 0-3 to finish 2-3, the Black Sticks produced some of their best hockey under Hager.

There were glimpses of that again yesterday, particularly in the first half when they struck twice within a minute to take a decisive 2-0 lead. After failing to convert one penalty corner, they made no mistakes seconds later when Katie Glynn hammered home.

A minute later, they swept back on to attack with Krystal Forgesson creating space for herself and providing the clinical finish for 2-0 after 15 minutes.

The Koreans, miffed at having their place in the final stolen from them when the Argentines successfully contested the formula used to ascertain the finalists, took up the attack.

They had a good chance in the 28th minute only to be denied again at a penalty corner when Sally Rutherford, who won the nod ahead of Bianca Russell for goalkeeper, saved brilliantly. Still ahead by those two goals at the break, New Zealand were forced to defend for much of the second half.

That Korean pressure was rewarded in the 42nd minute, when Kim Jong Eun fired the ball through Rutherford's legs for 2-1.

With the Black Sticks a player short as Stacey Michelsen did time in the sin bin, the Koreans finally scored - after 20 misses - from a penalty corner for 2-2.

With extra time looming New Zealand mounted one last attack. In a scramble, the ball ran free and Charlotte Harrison, unmarked a metre or so from the goal-line, had a simple tap home for 3-2 and a historic result.

It was their second win in six games at the tournament - the other by the same score over Australia in pool play - and left them ahead of England, who beat Australia 2-0 in the fifth/sixth play-off, as the top Commonwealth country.

It was New Zealand's eighth win in 53 matches at a Champions Trophy since their debut in 1987. In previous tournaments - restricted in the past to six teams - New Zealand never played for a medal - nine times consigned to the fifth/sixth play-offs.

"It was probably a match we were lucky to come away with in the end," said Hager. "I'm so pleased for players like Kayla Sharland and Emily Naylor. They are stalwarts of New Zealand hockey. They deserve this."