Womens Champions Trophy ENG v CHN 5v6 Play-off

CHINA 7 (3)

Li Hongxia 3 (F)

Ren Ye 27, 31 (F,PC)

Song Qingling 37 (F)

Fu Baorong 52,53 (F,F)

Xing Qian 58 (F)

ENGLAND 0 (0)

WORLD RANKING POSITIONS: China 4, England 8

With a number of players battling injury and illness, England fell to their heaviest defeat of the tournament losing out 7-0 in Sydney to the 2008 Olympic silver-medallists leaving their final placing as sixth with China avoiding relegation and booking their place alongside England in the 2010 tournament to be held in Nottingham. Bowdon Hightown’s Sally Walton earned her 50^th England cap in a match which saw China’s largest ever Champions Trophy victory.

China laid down the gauntlet in the third minute with what was their first attack of the match, setting the scene for the rest of the game. Fu Baorong brought the ball into the circle and passed it to LI Hongxia who deflected it high into the net. However, they had to wait another 24 minutes to add to their tally when Ren Ye picked up the ball in the circle and unleashed a powerful shot into the back of the net. She followed this up with China’s third a few minutes later when a broken down penalty corner saw the ball leave the circle, but it was passed back in to a waiting Ren Ye who deflected the ball through her own legs into the far post with what was an exceptional attempt to leave the Chinese 3-0 up at the break.

China caught England on the hop within minutes of the restart adding to their account when Song Qingling cleared up a rebound from a Zhao Yudiao shot which was originally saved by goalkeeper Beth Storry.

The 50s saw China’s most successful period with three goals in six minutes, the first of which came in the 52^nd minute to make it 5-0 when Fu Baorong deflected a shot into the back of the net and a minute later, she made it six after she came out on top from a one on one situation with Storry, a goal which at the time of writing makes her the tournament’s joint top scorer alongside Argentina’s Noel Barrionuevo. Xing Qian then sent China into seventh heaven 12 minutes from time.

Captain Kate Walsh was absent from the post match press conference suffering from a migraine, but Goalkeeper Beth Storry said “We’re obviously disappointed but we need to take what we’ve learnt and apply that to the Europeans next month. That’s our main focus of the summer”.

Danny Kerry “I can tell people and they can listen, but you have to experience things to learn and this has been a massive learning curve for many of our younger players”.

England begins their European campaign on Sunday 23^rd August against The Netherlands. They will be aiming for a top four finish to secure automatic qualification to the 2010 World Cup in Argentina.

Despite their sixth place positioning in this competition, England qualify for next year’s Champions Trophy as the host nation of next year’s tournament, from 10-18 July 2010, at Highfields Sports Club in Nottingham.

Later today, hosts Australia take on Argentina in the final following their 2-1 victory against the Dutch yesterday whilst Germany and The Netherlands will play-off for the bronze medal. Full results and reports will be available via the tournament website: http://www.samsungchampionstrophy2009.sportcentric.com/

Final Pool Table

Argentina, 11pts

Australia, 10pts

Netherlands, 8pts

Germany, 7pts

China, 4pts

England, 1pt

ENGLAND TEAM (full caps on attached list)

Beth Storry (SCHC) [Goalkeeper]

Natalie Seymour (Canterbury) [Defender]

Chloe Strong (Pinoke) [Defender]

Kate Walsh (SCHC) [Defender]