England def Japan in Beijing

OLYMPIC GAMES

Women’s Hockey Tournament, Saturday 16 August 2008

JAPAN 1 (0)

Keiko Miura 60 (PC

GREAT BRITAIN 2 (1)

Anne Panter 32 (F)

Crista Cullen 70 (PC)

TODAY’S RESULTS / FIXTURES

Women’s Pool A:

Australia 1 (1) – 2 (1) Netherlands

Korea 1 (0) – 6 (2) China

Spain 1 (1) – 0 (0) South Africa

Women’s Pool B:

New Zealand 1 (0) – 4 (2) USA

Germany 0 (0) – 4 (0) Argentina

GREAT BRITAIN 2 (1) – 1 (0) JAPAN

Great Britain picked the best possible time to score the winning goal in their first-ever Olympic encounter with Japan in a game in which Alex Danson earned her 100^th international cap and Helen Richardson earned her 150^th. The teams were level-pegging on points as they went into today’s match and with Argentina’s 4-0 defeat of Germany earlier in the day, the two countries knew that only the winner would keep alive feint hopes of a semi-final spot.

Chloe Rogers created the first opportunity of the match as she put the ball across the face of goal in the 6^th minute, but a diving Jo Ellis (Hightown) could not get the vital touch.

Japan earned their first penalty corner in the 8^th minute but it was defended well by Great Britain and a diving Beth Storry maintained her good form to keep out their second corner in the 17^th minute.

The Brits’ first set piece opportunity did not come until the 31^st minute when Rogers found a Japanese foot to earn the first of two first-half penalty corners, neither of which could find the back of the net. However, Team GB took a one goal advantage into the break after Anne Panter scored her first goal for Britain when she squeezed the ball in at the left post from close range after a good cross from Rogers in the 32^nd minute and Storry got down well to prevent a reply from a Keiko Miura shot on the stroke of half-time.

Some hard work from Mayumi Ono in the 46^th minute allowed her to break into the circle where she found a waiting Kaori Chiba, but Storry was again on hand to keep the one goal advantage. Shortly after, Rogers received a yellow card and Japan pushed hard to make the most of the numerical advantage, but their 49^th minute penalty corner was deflected wide by Crista Cullen.

In the 55^th minute, Panter earned another penalty corner after she was tackled hard in the circle, but Clewlow’s shot was cleared.

Japan finally found success from a penalty corner when a 60^th minute direct shot from Keiko Miura was deflected out of Storry’s reach by Rachel Walker to level the score with 10 minutes left on the clock.

A goal mouth melee involving Sarah Thomas and Ellis (Hightown) came to nothing when goalkeeper Ikuko Okamura cleared the ball to safety in the 62^nd minute and it looked like the two teams would be taking a point apiece from the game, but Japanese hearts were broken in the dying seconds when a well-worked penalty corner routine injected by Panter and involving Clewlow, Walsh and then Cullen with the final shot, handed the 2-1 victory to Britain with no chance of a reply from Japan.

The three points puts Britain on seven points and up to third place in the Pool B table behind Argentina on six points and Germany on nine points with one match to go. Table-toppers Germany will play Japan and Argentina take on rock bottom New Zealand, who will be playing for pride, in their final group matches. Whilst the outside chance of a semi-final spot remains a possibility (depending on the results of Germany and Argentina on Monday), Great Britain will want to secure a third place pool finish with a victory over the USA, who are currently occupying the fourth spot on five points. If they do this, the Brits will be playing off for 5^th/6^th and will guarantee them a finish at least three places above their current world ranking of 9.

Cullen said after the game: "For the goal our main penalty corner striker Mel Clewlow dummy passed to captain Kate Walsh and I finished it off.

“It was my third goal of the tournament and was obviously very important,” she added. “We play USA next. They are playing well and it will be a huge game. We are putting pressure on the top two teams in the group (Germany and Argentina), which is where we wanted to be."

PREVIOUS OLYMPIC ENCOUNTERS

This was Great Britain and Japan’s first meeting in the Olympic Games