Dutch Eves Turn on the Style to Corner World Cup Glory for Whopping 9th Time
Netherlands’ stranglehold over the Women’s Hockey World Cup continued as they turned on the style to outduel Argentina 3-1 to win the marquee tournament for a whopping ninth time. The Jamilon Mulders-coached Dutch outfit capped off a hat-trick of World Cup wins since losing to Argentina in the final of the 2010 edition at Rosario. Argentina’s 1-3 loss is an identical scoreline of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics final, where they were outsmarted by the Netherlands. This is the fourth time that the Las Leonas have finished runners-up in the showpiece event (1974, 1976, 1994 & 2022).
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After a goalless opening quarter, Argentina was severely depleted tactically as they lost the video referral very early in the second quarter. The game appeared to slip away from their grasp from there on. Maria Verschoor gave Netherlands the lead soon pouncing on a Yibbi Jansen penalty corner to deflect home from the left. The mountain just got bigger for the Las Leonas when Frédérique Matla produced a clinical finish in a great run to ensure the reigning champions was in the box seat at half-time.
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Trailing 0-2, Argentina needed to produce something special but all their plans came unstuck as Felice Albers made the most of a sublime Eva de Goede pass from near the centre-line to take the contest away from Argentina. Agustina Gorzelany did fire home from a short corner in the final quarter to emerge as the top goal-scorer of the tournament, but it was too little, too late for the South Americans to mount a comeback that could threaten the two-goal cushion of the Dutch.
Meanwhile, Australia rode on two late goals by Stephanie Kershaw to nose out Germany to take the bronze – the Hockeyroos looked headed for a fourth-place finish after Germany scored an early goal via Lena Micheel – a lead they held on to for the most part of the match until Stephanie Kershaw played a spoiler in the final eleven minutes of play.
