Following two unmissable men’s semi-finals matches from Tuesday, more Field Hockey action in Paris 2024 continued last night with the women’s semi-final day at Stade Yves-Du-Manoir stadium. One was the Netherlands v Argentina and the other involving Belgium v China as the two winning teams will be set for Friday afternoon’s/Saturday AM gold medal match while the two losing sides will still get one last chance v each other but this time via the best of 3rd place for bronze.
Like we’ve seen with the men’s Netherlands semi-final performance two days ago v Spain, the women’s Netherlands were also unstoppable including defensively with 2 x first half goals from open play followed by a usual Yibbi Jansen stunner when it comes to scoring goals off penalty corners for the 3rd Dutch goal. Despite an improved Argentina ball during the 2nd half, the Netherlands at least ensured they left the game without any Argentina goals 3-0.
Looking at Argentina, they did have some fair share of chances following their improved 2nd half play as no doubt they have been a serious side on a regular basis including this tournament. But again, Argentina’s poor start alongside the execution unfortunately didn’t help them that much, especially when going up against one of the best attacking sides in none other than the Netherlands. Their breakthrough chance for gold after a few shortcomings will have to wait in LA 2028.
And to finish off the women’s semi-final day was a cracking physical encounter between Belgium and China that went down the wire following a 1-1 draw after an hour of normal time via penalty shootouts. China had the early lead off a penalty corner when both teams were scoreless during the first 15 mins & they held that 1-0 advantage for the most part until Belgium scored the equaliser also from a penalty corner with two minutes to go before the match had to be decided via penalties since it’s a knockout semi-final.
Fortunately for China, they found a way once more to book themselves a gold medal spot v Netherlands come Friday/Saturday AM with the 3-2 penalties win that marked a reunion for coach former Hockeyroo Alyson Annan, who used to coach the women’s Netherlands side for so long, even though she lives there and also as a naturalised citizen these days alongside her Dutch partner Carole Thate. Wow!! Great game from both teams by the way when Belgium found themselves back in the game off the back of their good defense and the way they’ve pressed China in the 2nd half until these two missing penalty shots that forced China’s hand and China had a really good match once again that can break anyone team’s hearts as their journey isn’t over just yet on what is about to be their biggest test yet against someone Annan knows so well in none other than the Netherlands. The last time China made the Olympics final was back in Beijing 2008 where they were runner-up to the Netherlands 2-0 as Alyson has the Dutch tactics and know-how to help engineer her Chinese players home for gold.
We now got a London 2012 men’s (Holland v Germany) and Beijing 2008 women’s gold medal (Holland v China) rematches coming our way where this could end up either way going into Tomorrow & Saturday AM our time. Will we see a Dutch triumph this time that could extend that glory to their women’s team or else see Germany and China get their own breakthroughs instead against a team that is so hard to beat right now? We shall see before Paris 2024 finishes this weekend.
