Gene Muller’s misgivings over the format of the Champions Challenge I were confirmed in galling style as his Ireland side were dumped out of contention at the quarter-final stage by the USA on a 3-1 scoreline at Belfield last night.
Prior to the tournament, the South African had lamented a bizarre structure which saw all eight teams advance to the quarter-finals regardless of where they finished in the group stage.
There remained a suspicion, therefore, that the big teams were keeping their powder dry until the knockout stages, a theory given more legs as pool winners Ireland and South Africa were yesterday eliminated by basement sides USA and Spain respectively.
While Ireland nonetheless had plenty to be pleased about in their group stage wins over India and Azerbaijan and a draw with Spain — all three sides are ranked higher than the girls in green — they had no answer to the USA’s clever movement in attack yesterday.
Ireland’s outletting from defence had been problematic against the Spanish and the issue was magnified here by the Americans’ aggressive high press, encouraging the Irish backs to dump oceans of ball straight back to the visitors.
Ireland keeper Emma Gray toed an early Claire Laubach drag-flick around the post but Shannon Taylor had the US two goals to the good inside 20 minutes, benefiting from slick build-up play along the baseline from Melissa Gonzalez and Paige Selenski.
In a physical game that saw two yellows for USA players and five green card suspensions spread between the sides, Ireland could seemingly barely get out of their own half.
They conceded a third 60 seconds after the restart, Katie Reinprecht pulling the ball back for Rachel Dawson to smack home, while the in-form Gray was required to smartly save a Kayla Bashore-Smedly penalty stroke to prevent a rout.
But propelled by Emma Clarke and Aine Connery, the hosts found their feet thereafter and forced two quick-fire short corners.
Audrey O’Flynn’s first dragged effort was touched onto the post by American netminder Amy Tran-Swenson, but the Cork woman made no mistake second time round, rifling into the bottom corner to give Ireland a 49th-minute lifeline.
However, Alex Speers’ troops were left to rue two mis-trapped short corners thereafter, while Taylor saw the ball bobble over her outstretched stick from a foot out at the other end, denying her a hat-trick. The US closed the game out in relative comfort to advance to a semi-final meeting with Scotland tomorrow, with Spain
meeting Japan in the other tie.
Muller remained vehement in his opposition to the new tournament structure as all the good work of the group stages was rendered meaningless.
“It is flawed. In essence, all the form you get from the pool games is cancelled out and, certainly, in international hockey, you don’t want a competition which evens the playing field like this.
“Teams try and create that uneven field by winning matches and getting to semi-finals. It doesn’t make sense to me and I guarantee it won’t stay on. There’s too much resistance to it. Not a single coach here wants it and no one would have complained if they had kept the old format.”
As for the game itself, Muller conceded his side were outdone by a better team, a frustrating day out for the girls in green, as any rub of the green did not work in their favour.
“When you don’t have the momentum, those decisions go against you. They didn’t contribute to the outcome of the match but they certainly contributed to us not getting going. We had points in the match when we could have changed things. We mis-stopped two penalty corners at key times and it was all part of not being able to generate momentum.”
US goalscorer Dawson said: “We knew the crowd was going to be tough and an extra advantage for Ireland today. It was a great team effort.”
Ireland head into the fifth-eighth place play-offs looking to restore confidence and eke out vital world ranking points – their final position, not the results accrued along the way, will determine how many – as they again face Azerbaijan today (6pm) with India and South Africa also in the mix.
IRELAND: E Gray, M Harvey, C Sargent, E Smyth, E Clarke, A Speers, S McCay, J McDonnell, J O’Halloran, S McCarthy, N Symmons.
Subs: L Jacob, A Connery, A O’Flynn, C Watkins, L Colvin.
USA: A Tran-Swensen, R Dawson, K Reinprecht, K O’Donnell, M Kasold, C Nichols, P Selenski, C Laubach, K Falgowski, K Bashore-Smedley, L Crandall.
Subs: M Gonzalez, M Vittesse, M Cesan, S Taylor, J Reinprecht.
MEANWHILE, barring a Friday night horror show against Pakistan, Ireland are virtually assured a place in Saturday’s final after a stunning 6-1 win over France in Belfield tonight.
Knowing Ireland have inflicted big wins over the French in recent times – notably an 8-2 success in Dublin two years ago as well as last Saturday’s 7-1 win over their second string – captain Ronan Gormley was not getting overly excited about the scoreline.
Indeed, with potential battles in the INSEP Five Nations, the Champions Challenge II and, most importantly, the European championships.
“You can’t read too much into that game, nor is it the European Cup. We wanted to go out to test ourselves and test them and see how they react and the result is a bonus.
“On another day, a couple of those don’t go in and France are still in the game, nick another goal and the game can change very easily.”
David Ames was initially named as an inclusion but a back spasm late in the day saw him step out and Iain Walker taking his place on the bench with Ian Sloan the other player rested.
It took just 90 seconds to get off the mark, Chris Cargo picking out Mitch Darling whose first touch wrong-footed Matthias Dierckens and dribbled over the line.
France stepped up their game, holding sway in the middle stages of the half but David Harte was reasonably comfortable in clearing three limp efforts – the sum of the French attacking intent.
Their will appeared to be broken when Francois Scheefer howler opened the door for Ireland to punish their uncertain finishing. He miscontrolled, allowing Cargo to nip in, and the French skipper compounded his error by impeding the Reading man’s shot, resulting in a penalty stroke.
Cork man John Jermyn netted from the spot for 2-0, his 59th international goal, and number 60 came a minute later from Ireland’s first short corner.
And the goals continued to flow into the second half. Tim Cockram got a bizarre fourth, nut-megging Mathieu Dierckens after Mikey Watt’s diving deflection ballooned up in the air. Dierckens attempted to shepherd a spinning ball over the endline, it stopped in its tracks and Cockram flung a stick out and the ball squeezed through the hapless keeper’s feet and inched over the line.
Darling’s second was a classy finish, Cockram stealing the ball and feeding the striker who, with his back to goal, shimmied to his reverse and rolled behind Dierckens.
A right wing cross found Watt at the back post to tap in from a couple of inches for 6-0 in the 61st minute before Jean-Baptiste Pauchet got the consolation goal four minutes from time.
Ireland were happier with their performance between the 25s compared to Monday’s game but a few lessons could still be drawn, especially as France comprehensively won the corner count 5-1.
Comparing the two games, Gormley said: “Against China, we maybe didn’t play as well from 25 to 25 and defended the D a bit better and, attacking-wise, won a few more corners. Today we lost the corner count which is a stat the coaches always look at.
“But we were effective when we did get into the D. We had seven or eight entries in the first half and scored three goals but there is a little bit of improvement to do defensively.”
Looking forward to Friday’s tie with Pakistan, a more than likely potential fore-runner to the final a day later.
“As long we don’t get a big score against us against Pakistan. It shouldn’t happen but it’s good to get three points from both of the first two games,” Gormley concluded.
IRELAND: D Harte, G McCabe, R Gormley, M Watt, C Cargo, J Brennan, J Jermyn, M Darling, T Cockram, C Harte, S Loughrey
Subs: T Lewis, B McCandless, P Maguire, S O’Donoghue
FRANCE: M Dierckens, T Genestet, A Becuwe, F Magner, B Dierckens, Lucas Sevestre, Y Schambert, F Scheefer, J-B Pauchet, M Genestet, V Migneau
Subs: M Catonnet, Lois Sevestre, O Sanchez, S Wentworth, N Gagnard
PAKISTAN bounced back from Monday’s setback against France to get right back in the mix for the UCD 4 Nations Cup final, defeating China 3-2.
China now need results to go their way to have any chance of reaching the decider. They got off to a decent start, Xianting Liu finding a route through Salman Akbar from close range in the sixth minute.
But Sohail Abbas returned to the team after Monday’s rest to fizz in a trademark drag from his side’s first corner and Haseem scrambled the ball over the line from Shakeel Abbasi’s smacked pass to the back post.
Zhixin Sun tied the game for the second time in the 32nd minute but the winner came early in the second half when Zubair finished off in from close range three minutes into the second half.
And while the chances were not especially clear in the latter stages, the large Pakistani support greeted the victory with raucous celebrations aided by the IHA bang bang sticks, creating an excellent atmosphere.
Electric Ireland FIH Champions Challenge quarter-finals, Dublin
Scotland 3 (A Wylie, H Cram, A Bell) Azerbaijan 2 (K Aliyeva, E Jhoi);
Japan 1 (A Mitsuhashi) India 0
Spain 3 (R Huertas, B Malda, P Sanchez) South Africa 2 (S Damons, P Coetzee) (aet, golden goal);
Ireland 1 (A O’Flynn) USA 3 (S Taylor 2, R Dawson)
Today: 5th-8th place playoffs: India v South Africa (3.30pm); Ireland v Azerbaijan (6pm).
Tomorrow: Semi-finals: Scotland v USA; Spain v Japan.
Men’s UCD 4 Nations Cup
Ireland 6 (JJermyn 2, M Darling 2, T Cockram, M Watt) France 1 (Je-B Pauchet)
China 2 (Z Sun, XLiu) Pakistan 3 (S Abbas, M Zubair, Haseem)
Standings: 1. Ireland 6pts (+7) 2. Pakistan 3pts (-1) 3. France 3pts (-3) 4. China 0pts (-3)
Today: France v China (12.30pm); Ireland v Pakistan (8pm).