Classy Aussies thrash South Africa 10-0 in men's hockey
Thursday, 14 August 2008
BEIJING, Aug 13 (AFP):World number one Australia pulverised hapless South Africa 10-0 Wednesday to continue their impressive march towards retaining the Olympic men's field hockey gold medal.
Eli Matheson slammed a hat-trick and Jamie Dwyer and David Guest scored two goals each as the Kookaburras recorded their second successive win in Pool B at the Olympic Green Hockey stadium.
Meanwhile, Asian Games champions South Korea were given a scare by Games debutants China before romping to a 5-2 win in Pool A with Jang Jong-Hyun scoring three penalty corner goals.
China snatched a 2-0 lead by the eighth minute before the Koreans hit back to follow up their 3-1 win over the same rivals in the Asian Games final in Qatar two years ago.
Australia, who had routed Canada 6-1 in their first game, displayed their awesome strike power with five goals in each half as the 13th-ranked South Africans wilted under the onslaught.
Dwyer, whose golden goal against the Netherlands won Australia their maiden Olympic men's title in Athens four years ago, opened the floodgates with a second- minute goal.
Grant Schubert, Fergus Kavanagh and Des Abbott were the other scorers for Australia, who clash with Pakistan in their next game Friday.
"We had a real solid game," said Matheson, whose only other hat-trick was also against South Africa.
"Maybe I should play a bit more against them. But our overall play was good, we kept the ball speed up and had a good balance with our forwards."
Guest said the way Australia had started should serve as a warning to other teams.
Eli Matheson slammed a hat-trick and Jamie Dwyer and David Guest scored two goals each as the Kookaburras recorded their second successive win in Pool B at the Olympic Green Hockey stadium.
Meanwhile, Asian Games champions South Korea were given a scare by Games debutants China before romping to a 5-2 win in Pool A with Jang Jong-Hyun scoring three penalty corner goals.
China snatched a 2-0 lead by the eighth minute before the Koreans hit back to follow up their 3-1 win over the same rivals in the Asian Games final in Qatar two years ago.
Australia, who had routed Canada 6-1 in their first game, displayed their awesome strike power with five goals in each half as the 13th-ranked South Africans wilted under the onslaught.
Dwyer, whose golden goal against the Netherlands won Australia their maiden Olympic men's title in Athens four years ago, opened the floodgates with a second- minute goal.
Grant Schubert, Fergus Kavanagh and Des Abbott were the other scorers for Australia, who clash with Pakistan in their next game Friday.
"We had a real solid game," said Matheson, whose only other hat-trick was also against South Africa.
"Maybe I should play a bit more against them. But our overall play was good, we kept the ball speed up and had a good balance with our forwards."
Guest said the way Australia had started should serve as a warning to other teams.