Hockey: Black Sticks lose to Japan

7.30am - By MARK GEENTY

ATHENS - Coach Ian Rutledge had never seen a more devastated group of New Zealand players as they somehow conspired to lose 0-2 to Japan in their Olympic women's match to essentially end their medal hopes today.

Despite having 12 shots on goal to four, and six penalty corners to one, New Zealand couldn't finish anything and bemoaned some rotten luck at the Olympic Hockey Stadium against their weakest pool opponents.

The Black Sticks rued some inaccurate finishing and the goalkeeping of Rie Terazono who was the original immoveable object.

The final ignominy came when captain Suzie Muirhead's penalty stroke five minutes from time was saved by Terazono after Kayla Sharland was chopped down in the area.

Japan were outplayed but defended stoutly and finished their rare attacks, with Tomomi Komori scoring both goals in the 17th and 53rd minutes in one on one contests with goalkeeper Helen Clarke.

New Zealand were a shattered lot afterwards, Niniwa Roberts-Lang and Lizzy Igason both wandering arm in arm in tears and others sporting the 1000-yard stare.

"I haven't seen them this down, they put a lot of effort into this match and dominated. They're devastated, we came here to medal and now we're pushing it uphill," Rutledge said.

He was also irked at some of the refereeing, believing they were denied a certain penalty stroke from one of the late corners, and also disbelieving at a disallowed goal when Lisa Walton found the net but the referee failed to play the advantage.

"We didn't have much luck but I was very happy with the performance, we were dominant, we even put the ball in the net which wasn't given to us.

"It should have been a goal, unfortunately we didn't get it but we had other opportunities on the night to take as well."

Japan's form before today inspired New Zealand confidence, having lost 0-3 to China and 1-3 to Argentina.

They had also beaten Japan 4-1 in their previous meeting in February.

New Zealand were at least an improved lot from their 0-3 loss to China in their tournament opener, attacked with more purpose and showed more variations from penalty corners.

Little did New Zealand know that the opening five minutes would set the tone for their woes in front of goal, when Sharland missed a one on one shot from close range.

The second quarter saw a sustained period of dominance when Walton, twice, and Roberts-Lang had close shots saved, then Di Weavers sent their first penalty corner right of the goal.

From 0-1 at halftime it still seemed inevitable the pressure would tell, with defender Lizzy Igason pushing forward, but she had a shot well saved and watched another fly over the bar.

In between their five second half corners which were all saved, New Zealand conceded their second goal when Komori found herself in huge space in the circle.

The frustration began to show with Jaimee Provan and Tara Drysdale both shown green warning cards.

Rutledge now has to motivate his side for a match against Argentina in the heat of the late morning on Friday, a team which beat the Black Sticks 7-1 at the last Olympics in Sydney four years ago.

- NZPA