(5th-6th) China vs. Australia: 0-2 (half-time: 0-0)

In front of another capacity crowd of 16,000 spectators enjoying the hockey and the sunshine, China slightly dominated possession in the early stages of the match, but there was no danger whatsoever for the longest time for either goalkeeper, Toni Cronk for Australia and Zhang Yimeng in her bright pink jersey for China.

China could not take advantage of a series of penalty-corners, weakly taken, and the best opportunity of the first twenty minutes was for Megan Rivers, receiving the ball with space at the top of the circle but shooting just wide. Georgia Nanscawen was very active around the circle, creating chances for her teammates, and on a penalty-corner Anna Flanagan thought that she had scored, but the goal was called back after a video-referral.

Madonna Blyth then Jade Close had strong, but unsuccessful, attempts on goal and the two teams were still tied at 0-0 going into the half-time break, despite a last second penalty-corner for Australia.

Anna Flanagan scored again on a penalty-corner early in second period, but China appealed again to the video-umpire and the goal was denied again... The crowd was getting annoyed by the constant arguing of the Chinese players, but they could not talk their way out of a penalty-stroke in the 41st minute, superbly converted by Jodie Schulz to finally open the scoring.

Australia were now camping in the Chinese half and had a handful of penalty-corners but they could not manage to beat Zhang Yimeng in goal, leaving themselves exposed to the Chinese counter-attacks. On one of them, Li Hongxia found Song Qingling in the circle but her shot crashed on the post with the keeper beaten. Australia had another scare on a Ma Yibo penalty-corner and finally gave themselves some breathing room when Jade Close received the ball in the circle and slammed it in goal with 10 minutes to go.

Australia finished in 5th place, higher than their entry ranking of 7th. They will however regret the opening day defeat by New Zealand (0-1) that made the difference for semi-final qualification.

China, with inconsistent results in this competition, finished 6th, one spot lower than their entry ranking, a far cry from their silver medal performance in Beijing.

(Yan Huckendubler)