Were you to go out on the streets of any place in Europe and ask any member of the public to name any national hockey player you'd probably find that only in Holland could anyone find a name and it would probably be Holland's much capped Fatima Moreira De Melo, talented midfielder, model and singer. Most of us would have expected her and her team to have come to Bellevue and taken the rest of Europe's women to the cleaners but it was not to be and Fatima and the team went home unhappy in the end.
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 |  Report by John Coxon/photos Andrew Beckett |
With the England Women's Squad valiantly holding the Dutch with stalwart defending for most of the game , leading up to the semi final, and losing by a single point after the current world champions had failed to score from nearly a dozen penalty corners, the host nation perhaps had no better chance than to deliver the killer blow to the Germans with tight play and take on the well drilled Dutch in the final with a real prospect of victory but it was not to be. Germany won their semi beating England 3-2. But at least their third place with the win against Spain assures them of qualification for in the Beijing Olympics.
The Dutch with quite a few new young faces fell 2-0 in the final to a confident and workmanlike German side . England beat Spain for the bronze 3-2 .th England goals were all from penalty corners with established seniors , Mel Clewlow ( Canterbury HC) smacking it home in the fifteenth minute and Leicester HC's Christa Cullen nailing it with two great hits , in the 24th minute and then finding the spot again in the 49th.
In the final both teams had been previously unbeaten but the 2nd minute a goal from the Germany's Janine Beermann shocked all present with her reverse stick shot skying over Floortje Engel's head suggested that a shock might be on the cards. Five minutes into the second half , again with a reverse stick shot , following a long pass from an unmarked Muller , Janine banged it home and had the World Champs reeling. In the 62nd minute Germany's Pia Eidmann was shown the yellow card but the Netherlands could not capitalise on their one player advantage..
