Netherlands, New Zealand start with wins : TheAlike

Rourkela, 14 January (Agency)

Three-time champions the Netherlands opened their campaign at the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup on a winning note, beating Malaysia 3-0 while New Zealand registered a 3-1 win over Chile on Saturday. Sam Hiha scored two field goals in the first two quarters (11th and 18th minutes) for New Zealand in the first match of Pool C, while Sam Lane scored the first goal in the ninth minute.

Ignacio Contardo scored the lone goal for Chile in the 49th minute. In the second match, T van Dam scored a goal in the 19th minute to give the world number three team Netherlands the lead. Jip Janssen scored a penalty stroke for the Netherlands. Teun Bains scored a penalty corner in the 46th minute to make it 3-0. The Netherlands top the pool on the basis of better goal average, while New Zealand are second. Netherlands will face New Zealand and Malaysia will face Chile in the next pool match on Monday.

Belgium beat Korea, Germany beat Japan

Bhubaneswar (Agency) Defending champions Belgium thrashed Korea 5-0 in Saturday’s match, while two-time champions Germany thrashed Asian Games champions Japan 3-0. Korea did not allow Belgium to score until halftime, but Belgium scored two goals in the third quarter and three in the fourth quarter. For that 5 different players scored. Hendriks Alexander scored in the first minute of the third quarter while Kosins Tangay scored in the 42nd minute.