Australia Shuts Out Poland, 4-0

Australia began its quest for an elusive Olympic field hockey gold medal in emphatic style today, defeating Poland, 4-0, in men’s Pool B.

Australia had eight shots at goal during the first half, but it was denied time and again by Polish goalkeeper Marcin Pobuta.

Finally, in the 34th minute, the pressure created by Michael Brennan, Troy Elder and Stephen Davies paid dividends, with James Elmer swooping on a loose ball to slam a back-stick shot into the top of the net.

Australia took control in the second half behind Brennan and Jay Stacy.

Stacy scored from a penalty corner in the 12th minute to make the score 2-0, and five minutes later he set up James Elmer for the third goal.

Brennan capped a superb game with his 39th international goal.

Polish captain Robert Grzeszczak and defender Pawel Jakubiak did their best to hold off the Australians, but the final total of 17 shots on goal to four told the tale of Australia’s dominance.

Canada 2, Pakistan 2--Canada opened the scoring with a deflection by Ken Pereira in the fifth minute.

After some strong defensive work by Canadian goalkeeper Mike Mahmood, Kamran Ashraf tied the score with a deflection into the top right corner.

Canada regained control of the match behind Sean Campbell, who dragged the ball around a Pakistan defender onto his back-stick and scored a back-stick goal.

The Canadian forwards continued to pressure Pakistan’s defense, but it was Pakistan that broke through on a penalty corner with just over a minute remaining in the first half. Penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas flicked the ball through the defense into the bottom right corner to tie the score, 2-2.

Both teams came out strong in the second half and had opportunities to score, but neither team capitalized on their chances.

Pakistan next meets Great Britain and Canada plays Germany on Monday.

Germany 1, Malaysia 0--Bjoern Emmerling scored in the 43rd minute from a flick on a penalty corner.

Malyasia pushed forward several times but could not penetrate the German defense.

Indonesia 3, Argentina 0--Sameer Dad and Mukesh Kumar Nandnoori scored first-half goals and Dad added another in the second half to lead Indonesia.

WOMEN

China 2, Netherlands 1--Huiping Yang scored two goals to lead China to the victory.

Yang scored at 15:36 in the first half and 38:50 in the second half.

Margie Teeuwen scored for the Netherlands at 68:54.