KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's semifinal ambitions in the men's Olympic hockey tournament died before yesterday's loss to world champions Germany.
There were no grumbles over the 3-1 loss, which was based on a flying start by the Germans and a first half in which the Black Sticks were overrun and
thoroughly outclassed. New Zealand had to win the game to make the last four.
They would only have needed a draw had chances to get points from earlier pool games not been blown.
Conceding the winner to Spain inside the last few seconds; and especially failing to beat hosts China after handing them a two-goal lead in the first 10 minutes were crucial. The Chinese are ordinary; that was their only point before their final game against Belgium early today.
The Germans were always going to be difficult and the Black Sticks had sensed months ago that their ambitions to shoot for a medal would come down to this day.
New Zealand had a couple of warmup games against Germany before arriving in Beijing. That was deliberately designed to give them some pointers for yesterday.
But whether the Black Sticks froze early - difficult to imagine in the broiling heat - or the Germans set out to put the hammer down from the start, New Zealand were facing a decent-sized mountain at halftime.
They were grumpy at the opening German goal, by captain Timo Wess. The umpire had asked them to get back behind the line and assured them that he'd hold up the Germans until their defensive line was set. He didn't.
The second goal came from a clever long-range deflection by Germany's outstanding attacker Mattias Witthaus.
At times the Black Sticks appeared to be chasing shadows in the first half. Their passing was sloppy and they were unable to put sufficient heat on the German defence.
New Zealand needed the odd stroke of luck. Had Simon Child's brave dive and flick past German keeper Max Weinhold gone inside the post a minute after the restart it would have given them the fillip they needed.
They did reduce the gap when Hayden Shaw pounded the Black Sticks' only penalty corner beyond Weinhold 11 minutes later.
For much of the rest of the match, New Zealand had parity, spurred on by a sense of urgency and able to rattle the Germans.
However, the killer came 15 minutes from time when Florian Keller, left unmarked on the right of the circle, slapped the ball past Woolford.
"We have proven we're good enough to foot it with the big teams. We just lack a little bit of quality to break into the top four," captain Ryan Archibald said after the match.
New Zealand were desperate to see Spain flog Korea late last night (NZT). If that happened, New Zealand would be playing for fifth or sixth; a narrow Spanish win, a draw or a Korean win and they were back to shooting for seventh and eighth on Thursday.
The top six nations qualify for the next Champions Trophy.
"That was our fallback," midfielder Shea McAleese said yesterday.
"We feel we deserve to be in the top six. We'll be bitterly disappointed if we don't make it."
They'll also realise the points squandered earlier in the tournament have cost them dearly.