Belgium had too much in their locker for a game Ireland, as an entertaining 6-3 victory ended the green machine’s hopes of reaching a World League semi-final in Rotterdam yesterday.
That extinguished their first opportunity to qualify for next year’s World Cup for the first time since 1990. They head for the last chance saloon tomorrow morning against Spain (11.30am Irish time) in the 5th-8th place playoffs; victory would guarantee sixth place at a minimum and likely qualification depending on other permutations.
Ireland’s only other route to next summer’s showpiece is to win August’s European championships, a task that looks a long way beyond them given this defeat to the Belgians plus a 5-0 reverse at the hands of the Netherlands in the pool stages.
They improved upon that dour performance yesterday but left themselves too much to do after a poor start. Loik Luypaert’s drag-flick again exposed David Harte’s glove-side short corner defence – a weak point for Ireland in this tournament so far – before Thomas Briels flicked over the keeper after Simon Gougnard’s skills had exposed the Irish defence.
Those two goals in as many minutes left them two down with just 10 minutes gone, but they avoided further concession as Harte went on to put in another of his trademark superior performances with a string of saves from direct shots.
Chris Cargo then gave Ireland a lifeline just before half-time, the short corner injector volleying home after Timmy Cockram’s drag had been saved by Belgian keeper Vincent Vanasch. An unfortunate own goal, which went in off skipper Ronan Gormley, re-established a two-goal advantage and had Irish coach Meredith seething.
“The critical moment was conceding the third goal, and unfortunately it is another example of why the own goal experimentation is an unnecessary intrusion into our game, particularly after we changed the rules to try and stop balls being crashed into the circle,” said the Australian.
“It came against the run of play in our most positive phase of the tournament. How is that a reward for trying to play positive hockey, particularly when the camera positions are poor for video referrals at this tournament?”
Ireland again hit back, John Jackson stepping up convert a beautiful switch-flick that few realised the Mossley man had in his armoury.
But Sebastien Dockier lost his marker Jonathan Bell to get a near post touch to Tom Boon’s hopeful cross, before Belgium came crashing through the back of Shane O’Donoghue in midfield and Boon was put through one-on-one – his diving chipped finish for 5-2 was a worthy one.
Ireland once again came back with a goal made in Ulster, as Mikey Watt and Cockram teamed up to cross for Paul Gleghorne to redirect to the backboard. Belgium weren’t to be denied though, Dockier grabbing his second as he flashed a stick at a loose ball when Ireland failed to clear convincingly off Harte’s pads.
As the seventh seed in this eight-team tournament, a sixth-place finish would be something of a result for Ireland, especially given how the midfield heart of their side has been ripped out in the past 12 months by the defections of Ian Sloan and David Ames to Great Britain and the unavailability of midfield regulars Eugene Magee, John Jermyn and Geoff McCabe – plus IHL player of the year Peter Brown – among others.
But this side is still more ambitious than that, and Meredith called on them to turn on the style against the Spanish, ranked eight places above Ireland in seventh: “We are no longer in control of the qualification process, and must now regroup as quickly as possible, take the positive steps we made forward, and look to give our best performance to date in the next game.”
“The critical moment was conceding the third goal, and unfortunately it is another example of why the own goal experimentation is an unnecessary intrusion into our game, particularly after we changed the rules to try and stop balls being crashed into the circle,” said the Australian.
“It came against the run of play in our most positive phase of the tournament. How is that a reward for trying to play positive hockey, particularly when the camera positions are poor for video referrals at this tournament?”
Ireland again hit back, John Jackson stepping up convert a beautiful switch-flick that few realised the Mossley man had in his armoury.
But Sebastien Dockier lost his marker Jonathan Bell to get a near post touch to Tom Boon’s hopeful cross, before Belgium came crashing through the back of Shane O’Donoghue in midfield and Boon was put through one-on-one – his diving chipped finish for 5-2 was a worthy one.
Ireland once again came back with a goal made in Ulster, as Mikey Watt and Cockram teamed up to cross for Paul Gleghorne to redirect to the backboard. Belgium weren’t to be denied though, Dockier grabbing his second as he flashed a stick at a loose ball when Ireland failed to clear convincingly off Harte’s pads.
As the seventh seed in this eight-team tournament, a sixth-place finish would be something of a result for Ireland, especially given how the midfield heart of their side has been ripped out in the past 12 months by the defections of Ian Sloan and David Ames to Great Britain and the unavailability of midfield regulars Eugene Magee, John Jermyn and Geoff McCabe – plus IHL player of the year Peter Brown – among others.
But this side is still more ambitious than that, and Meredith called on them to turn on the style against the Spanish, ranked eight places above Ireland in seventh: “We are no longer in control of the qualification process, and must now regroup as quickly as possible, take the positive steps we made forward, and look to give our best performance to date in the next game.”