Bhubaneshwar: There’s never been a draw hitherto in hockey World Cup openers. On Wednesday, at the Kalinga hockey stadium, Canada came close to rewriting this little bit of history, threatening to score two goals in the final quarter against world No 3 Belgium but ended up losing 1-2.
The Canadians, ranked 11 in the world, needed two goals in the last quarter to save the match. Mark Pearson gave his team hope, scoring off a penalty corner in the 48th minute. But the Belgians held on to the one-goal lead after that.
But it was a different story in the first half. Belgium pounced on the Canadians very early in the match. In the second minute, they broke into the Canadian circle. Gauthier Boccard, from outside the dotted circle, had passed the ball to an unmarked Tom Boon. But as the latter awaited to deflect the ball into the net, a defender cleared it away.
But Belgium’s wait for their first goal, after this attempt, lasted only a few seconds. From a resultant long corner, Arthur van Doren pushed the ball to Felix Denayer, who deflected it into the Canadian net.
The Belgians would have been 2-0 up in the second quarter but skipper Thomas Briels was disallowed a goal after the umpires found that the cross that reached him was off a back-stick.
Belgium’s second goal – a three-part act – evoked more delight in the second quarter of the match. First, van Doren dodged a defender with a swift, cheeky sidestep. He passed the ball to Nicolas de Kerpel, who let the ball pass between his legs and go to his skipper Thomas Briels. The captain, unmarked in front of the goal had to just push the ball into the net– and he didn’t err.
Belgium had more opportunities in the third quarter. But Alexander Hendrickx’s drag flicks were kept out by Canadian ‘keeper Antoni Kindler, who had a better evening than his team. Kindler’s defenders slipped up on several occasions and he was there cleared away or blocked the ball.
Canadian coach Paul Bundy conceded during the half-time that his team had made some technical errors. The mistakes appeared reduced in the next two quarters but then, the Belgians had already done the damage.