New Zealand 3
South Korea 1
KEY POINTS:
It takes a special talent to back up brave words with deeds.
On that score Hayden Shaw is a special talent.
With the game and, perhaps, New Zealand's Olympic campaign on the line, goal-scoring machine Shaw stepped up not once, twice, but three times to lead his team
to a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over South Korea.
The win, in a match targeted before the tournament as a must-win, sets New Zealand up nicely for the rest of pool play.
Shaw talked confidently before the tournament of wanting to be top scorer; of wanting to be the man to look to with the game in the balance; of wanting to propel his side into the semifinals. It's still early but you wouldn't back against him now.
"First game up, that's what I wanted to do. I want to be top goal scorer and that's a good way to kick it off," he said.
At 0-1 down with less than 30 minutes to play, did he feel the weight of the world on his shoulders when New Zealand were finally awarded their first penalty corner? Forget it.
"There was no nerves at penalty corner time. I know what I have to do, I've done it millions of times.
"If I put the ball where I want it to go and the goalkeeper gets a save on it, I don't care. If he's good enough to save it, he's good enough to save it. All I have to do is worry about what I do and put it in those corners."
Let's face it, when Shaw puts it where he wants to, they don't often save it. Last night was the perfect example - three clean strikes, three goals.
"I knew that goalkeeper inside-out before the game so I knew where I was going."
For the record the first one went high to the keeper's right, the second high to his left and the third was a brilliantly worked one-two variation that was drilled low.
"We knew they were going to run out on me," Shaw said of the nifty move that gave him his hat-trick.
So has he any other tricks up his sleeve (so to speak, given they wear singlet tops)?
"Yeah. we've got a few. We're pretty confident."
The victory was all the more remarkable because, by general consensus, they were taught a lesson by the Koreans in the first half, allowing them to dictate the tempo of the match. They were lucky to be just a goal down at the break.
New Zealand's player of the half was keeper Paul Woolford, who repelled most of Korea's 12 goal attempts and when he couldn't get there, the large frame of Shaw managed to clear one off the line.
In the same spell New Zealand mustered only three attempts at goal, which gives you an indication of Korea's dominance.
"If anything we needed to be a lot braver," Shaw said.
Though not, perhaps, as brave as defender Blair Hopping. The Aucklander was outstanding, making plenty of timely interventions, but wearing the stick of Korean striker Lee Nam Yong wasn't his most clever one.
"I got the guy's stick on his follow through. It got me across the back of the head and split me open. There's a few stitches in there, I don't know quite how many at this stage. The doctor didn't have time to tell me, he just whacked them in there and told me to get back out there.
"I'll be on the waters and under close supervision for a little while. It was a nice clean split and it didn't knock me unconscious."
Hopping returned for the second half swathed, Bert Sutcliffe-style, in bandages but would have woken this morning feeling like he'd swallowed a half dozen of the local Tsingtao beers.
Shaw deserved a few of those himself.
New Zealand 3 (H. Shaw [PC] 42nd, [PC] 57th [PC] 64th), South Korea 1(Lee [PC] 11th).
Ht: NZ 0 - SK 1.
