The New Zealand's men's hockey team showed there could be life after Ryan Archibald as they knocked over world champions Germany 2-1 in their final Olympic warm-up match in Athens yesterday.
Penalty corner maestro Hayden Shaw slammed in the winner 10 minutes from fulltime as New Zealand took a huge confidenceboost ahead of Sunday night's tournament opener against Australia.
There was an emotional build-up to the match when coach Kevin Towns broke down in tears after announcing that Archibald, his key midfielder and a close family friend, would miss the Games because of a leg injury.
That seemed to galvanise the team as they frustrated the Germans and cramped their space.
Goalkeeper Paul Woolford was a rock in the second half.
"A win was great for our confidence. Even if they had the ball we were denying them a lot of space in the middle," a beaming Towns said.
"We put pressure on at the back so I think they could be a little bit concerned at their defence."
New Zealand opened the scoring through striker Phillip Burrows after a goalmouth scramble, but conceded a goal under similar circumstances just before the break.
Woolford brilliantly saved two penalty corners in succession, then Shaw stepped up after a big run by Minesh Patel earned them an overdue set piece.
In his only penalty corner of the match, Shaw deposited it calmly into the right corner.
Towns was happy with his new midfield, with striker Bevan Hari dropping back and Archibald's replacement, David Kosoof, stepping in.
It completed a useful build-up for the New Zealanders, who lost 3-2 to world No 4 Korea, then drew 2-2 with world No 5 Pakistan, this week.
Towns said Archibald had been given clearance to stay with the New Zealand team for the duration of the Games, although he would have to move from the athletes' village and be separate from the hockey squad at the venues.
Archibald suffered a compound fracture just below the knee in June, but flew from New Zealand last week in a seemingly hopeless bid to make the squad of 16.
