Harpal Singh Bedi / Bhubaneswar
Defending champion Australia huffed and puffed before eking out a hard fought 2-1 win over lowly Ireland in their opening pool B league match in the 14th Hockey World Cup at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar on Friday.
The winners who scored a goal in each half , dominated the match but the Ireland gave them run for their money before going down. Blake Govers (11th) Tim Brand (34th) scored a goal each for the three time champions while Shane O’Donoghue,(14th) scored for Ireland
Though Aussies collected three full points but the victory was far from convincing. They could convert only one of the five penalty corners while failing to make use of the numerous chances that came their way. The strikers turned out to be poor marksmen
On the other hand Ireland had come with a plan. They attacked from the very start giving no time to their famed rivals to settle down
The Australians were jolted out of slumber when in the 4th minute Ireland created a move from the left flank with Jonathan Bell leading the charge and he relayed the ball to unmarked Shane O’Donoghue whose shot was blocked by goalkeeper Andrew Charter and on the rebound Matthew Nelson made another attempt but time again Charter made a superb save.
Infuriated by this sudden assault on their citadel, the Aussies launched a furious counter attack from the left flank as Corey Weyer dribbled past the rival defence and sent the ball to Matthew Swann who failed to connect the ball near the goal.
The defending champions kept on attacking from both the flanks forcing the Irish players to fall back to defend their citadel conceding the space to their rivals who took advantage of the situation and earned two quick penalty corners with Blake Govers convert the second to put his side in lead (1-0) and that happened n the 11th minute.
🏑 | LIVE | Glimpses from the third quarter of the game that has seen plenty of action! Stay tuned for more 😎
SCORE: 2-1 #HWC2018 #Odisha2018
🇦🇺 #AUSvIRL 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/n6ckio67u2— Odisha Sports (@sports_odisha) November 30, 2018
The lead however lasted barely three minutes as Ireland fought back hard and fast with Sean Murray moving up cutting through couple of ball and sent a nice cross to Shane O’Donoghue, who made no mistake in sending the ball home (1-1)
Australian resumed their counter attacks without wasting any time but their striker failed to beat captain and goal keeper David Harte.,But for Harte’s heroics Australia would have taken at least two goal lead by that time,
Ireland after being under pressure for five minutes retaliated which created panic in the Australian defence and they conceded a penalty corner ,however O’Donoghue failed to beat Andrew Charter who blocked his flick
A counter by the Australian saw David Harte in action as he brought off a super save and then foiled two penalty corner attempts
Four minutes into the third quarter, the Australians surged ahead as a Tim Brand intercepted a cross inside the Irish circle side stepped a defender and sent the ball in the cave (2-1)and that turned out to be the winner
Buoyed by the lead the defending champions stepped up the pressure but Harte denied them the pleasure to increase the lead.
The Australians kept up the relentless pace and pressure but the Irish players displayed remarkable composure and nerves to keep their rampaging rivals at bay.
HSB