Netherlands v. Korea 3-2 (half-time:2-1)

The Netherlands became the first hockey team to book a ticket in the semi-finals after earning a 3-2 win against Korea. With four wins in as many outings, the Dutch are a top the standings with 12 points, enough to guarantee them a top-four finish.

It was a barn burner early on as Korea and the Dutch treated the fans to an offensive-themed game. Korea’s Cheon Seul Ki blasted a rocket of a shot into the upper corner of the net on a penalty corner chance to poen the scoring. But moments later the Dutch replied with two rapid fire goals. Lidewij Welten tipped in the 1-1 marker and Nami van As followed up moments later to give the Dutch the lead midway through the half.

The Dutch wasted no time getting down to business in the second half, scoring on their initial trip down the field. Carlein Dirkse vsn den Heuvel gave her team some breathing room and set the tone for the second half, essentially dashing the Korean’s hopes for an upset with her strike.

Cheon Seul Ki scored her second goal of the game to pull Korea to within one and put the Dutch on their ties for the finale. But after battling penalty problems for much of the second half, the Koreans didn’t have the gas to get the equalizer as the Netherlands hung on for another three points.

Germany, which plays later today is a virtual lock to join the Dutch in the semi-finals. The two European teams have dominated Group A, which was far more straight forward in its results. The Netherlands now has the luxury of having its semi-final place secure with four days to prepare. Korea will now focus on getting into the fifth-place match, which is easily within reach.

(Eric Bailey)

Lidewij WELTEN (NED)
On their tight win:
"The first thought of course is: 'why are we giving ourselves a hard time in the end again?' But obviously, we are very happy to have reached the semifinals. To do that in just four games out of five is very good."

"We play well for some parts of the game, but we also have many moments that are not good. Moments when we lose possession, make stupid mistakes, get unnecessary cards. Three goals is an improvement to the last game, but we had many more chances and could have had many more goals. On the other hand, we do create chances so I am not very worried."



Naomi VAN AS (NED)
On their next game against Great Britain:
"I definitely want to beat Great Britain, even though we are already in the semifinals. It is a good feeling to win every game, so this is not a reason to take it easy now. It is nice to be first in the pool, but we are here to become Olympic champions and to become Olympic champions, you simply have to win everything."

On the other pool:
"We are experiencing that several other countries that were clearly behind us a couple of years ago have improved a lot, for example USA and Great Britain. That is just another reminder that you always have to keep improving yourself, to be the number one in the world does not mean that you can lay back."