The second match of the day seemed like a David vs. Goliath contest. Canada had lost veteran Ranjeev DEOL with a nasty hand injury in practice and were lining up three World Cup rookies (Matthew PECK in goal, Taylor CURRAN and Jesse WATSON). To their credit, they seemed in a better frame of mind than against Germany and the first scoring chance was for them when Philip WRIGHT received the ball completely alone in the Dutch circle, but could not control it.

The Netherlands progressively increased the pressure and Matt PECK in the Canadian goal was kept busy. He stood his ground well on a one-on-one with Valentin VERGA, pushing him aside then getting up fast enough to deflect the shot from the rebound. Canada scrambled a penalty-corner chance and Matt PECK stopped the first attempt by Taeke TAEKEMA on a similar set piece at the other end. The Canadians defended well a second Dutch penalty-corner, were saved by the post on the third one and successfully appealed what could have been the first goal for The Netherlands.

Permanently harangued by Rob SHORT, Canada were certainly offering a completely different face than in their poor show against Germany, playing a composed and organized defense and progressing up field by quick counter-attacks. The Netherlands never managed to take control of play in first period and were imprecise on a number of shooting chances, so half-time was reached without any goal.

The Dutch immediately pressed forward in second period and the Canadian were pushed back on their heels. Taeke TAEKEMA finally opened the scoring on a penalty-corner in the 41st minute. After Canada nearly equalized on a scramble in front of Guus VOGELS, Ronald BROUWER soon increased the lead with an easy tap-in on a pass from Teun DE NOOIJER attracting three defenders. Rogier HOFMAN added a third goal after picking up the rebound from another shot by Teun DE NOOIJER and things started to look bleak for the Canadians.

With their defense stretched, the Canadians could not prevent additional goals by Rob RECKERS, Rogier HOFMAN then Taeke TAEKEMA, and The Netherlands cruised to their third victory of the competition to top pool A.

Match Facts (Netherlands v. Canada):
> Netherlands join England as the only teams to have won all three of their matches at Delhi 2010.
> The Netherlands have now won 4 successive World Cup matches (2006-2010). This equals their second longest winning streak in the competition. Holland’s record for most consecutive WC wins is 6 and was set in1998-2002.
> The Netherland scored 6 goals in the second half today. The last time they managed this in a World Cup match was on 24 November 1994 against Belgium 8-1 (HT 2-1).
> Taekema scored twice to lift his WC total to 19 goals. This takes him into third place on the all-time World Cup top scorer list, overtaking Wolfgang Strödter’s (GER) total of 18 goals.
> Only Paul Litjens (NED, 26) and Ties Kruize (NED, 21) have scored more WC goals.
> Taekema has now scored in each of The Netherlands’ last seven World Cup matches (2006-2010).
> He is the first player to do so since Australia’s Jay Stacey (1994-1998).
> Rogier Hofman became the first Dutch player since Teun de Nooijer in 1998 (vs NZL) to score 2 field goals in a World Cup match.
> Canada are yet to collect their first points at Delhi 2010, having lost all three of their games as did South Africa in Pool B. Argentina can join them if they lose to Germany later tonight.