Today Pool A and B had final league matches. Belgium and Australia reached the quarter finals directly. Korea, Germany, France and Argentina qualified for next round and will play the crossovers with winners reaching quarter finals. Japan and South Africa were eliminated.
The story of the last round of league matches (in two days) was that there were freaking unbelievable 67 goals scored, including 18 goals by the losers. (Just as a perspective, the losers of the first round of league matches scored only 1 goal). I think, the competition for the pool position opened up the game and the attack played a critical role compared to the defense. There were five hat tricks and Charlet Victor from France emerged as the highest scorer in the tournament with 6 goals. That is unheard of! This is the first ever World Cup by France! Besides, they had a spirited fight with Argentina and drew the game 5-5. Just two days ago, I had praised Argentina as if they ARE the world champion. And today, one of the lowest ranked teams, France, scored five goals against them. Oh well!
On Sunday knock out matches begin! You win or go home. India plays New Zealand. Bad news is that Hardik is out of the tournament due to injury. I have enclosed the knockout map which shows that if India wins NZ, then they play mighty Belgium. Fun literally begins now!!
There is an excellent analysis on penalty corners today in the newspaper (Could not figure out which one!). If you love hockey, it is worth reading the article (Credit to my friend Mudit for referring this article to me.)
