The Dutch national team lost 3-2 to Great Britain in the first Pro League match of the season in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. This made it a debut for Pinoké striker Joep Troost to quickly forget. The executioner of the Netherlands was debutant Struan Walker from Scotland, who scored both the 1-0 and the 3-2.
‘Great Britain only came into our circle three times in the first half, but scored two goals. We have to learn from that. We played well, but we left it there,” concluded Dutch captain Thierry Brinkman in front of the Watch.hockey camera.
It had been three and a half months since the Dutch national team last played. The Dutch team’s last match was the European Championship final in Mönchengladbach, which they won 2-1 against England. Many England players were now on the field on behalf of Great Britain.
The European Championship final was a thrilling hockey battle, which was interrupted for an hour due to bad weather. The final phase of the match had some confusing minutes with the video referee . And to top it all off, Maurits Visser stopped a penalty ball twice in the final phase after coming off his line too early. This time it was not as epic a match as the European Championship final, but plenty still happened.
The Dutch team opens with a ball on the crossbar
The Dutch national team traveled to Argentina with a selection of 22 players. Compared to the European championship, Thijs van Dam, Jonas de Geus and Duco Telgenkamp were missing. Van Dam tore a tendon in his groin last month. De Geus has only just recovered after suffering from tendon problems in his knee for a long time. Telgenkamp boarded a plane with the Dutch Juniors to Malaysia, where he dropped out of the match against Pakistan this week with a hamstring injury.
One of the players who returned to the group that traveled to Argentina was Tjep Hoedemakers. During the European Championships he suffered a hamstring injury. However, national coach Jeroen Delmée now left him out of the eighteen-man match selection, together with Tijmen Reyenga, Floris Middendorp and Teun Beins. They will probably get playing minutes in the coming days. The Netherlands will play against Great Britain again next week and twice against Argentina.
It looked promising in the first minutes for the Dutch team, which scored five penalty corners in the opening phase. Jip Janssen dragged the ball hard against the crossbar via a stick. Britain had been warned.
The Netherlands has come back from behind twice
But after the British had already missed a chance to make it 1-0 through Jack Waller, it was debutant Struan Walker from Scotland who scored with his backhand from the spin in the fifteenth minute: 1-0. Early in the second quarter, the Dutch team erased that deficit. It was Jorrit Croon who got it on his hips. The technically gifted midfielder moved in from the left flank and scored the 1-1.
The Orange Men then dominated the second quarter. But in the 28th minute, the Netherlands conceded another goal. Nick Bandurak turned away from Croon and signed for the 2-1. A downer for the Netherlands, just before half time.
The Dutch repaired that damage early in the third quarter. Janssen dragged a penalty corner hard against the board: 2-2. That seemed to be the impetus for more Dutch goals. But nothing could be further from the truth. Debutant Walker received the ball in the circle in the fourth quarter, turned away from Justen Blok and scored the 3-2. The Dutch team could not recover from that blow. On the night from Friday to Saturday, the Netherlands continues its Pro League campaign with an international match against Argentina.
by Hockey.nl
