South Asia Times News Bulletin

The battle for Hockey supremacy has begun and India are confident with a big win over Pak and ready to take on Australia on 3rd day and their second game of the Hockey World Cup Tuesday, while Pool A also begin matches Monday.
On the 2nd day of the World Cup a resilient New Zealand took on Canada and it came back strongly in the opening match of the Pool A Hockey World Cup to defeat a spirited Canada 3-2, while defending champion Germany came back from a two-goal deficit to hold South Korea 2-2 on Monday.

Canada went ahead in the opening minutes as Mark Pearson found the net. But New Zealand restored parity in the 11th minute courtesy Indian-origin player Priyesh Bhana.

Canada started a good move in the 20th minute and Philip Wright made it 2-1. After the breather Nicholas Haig gave finishing touches to a great move to level the score line. New Zealand at that time was in the groove and didn't waste that opportunity.

Veteran play maker Ryan Archibald gave his team the winning goal in the 67th minute. The Black Sticks thus started their World Cup campaign on a winning note.

In the 2nd match of the Pool A defending champion Germany took on South Korea.

The German team were in for a shock when Hye Sung Hyun took the lead in the 3rd minute.

The Germans were in for more surprises. Korea increased their lead in the 15th minute through Nam Yong Lee. But the never say die attitude of German team was in full flow in the 2nd half as they mounted several attempts and in the 50th minute opened their score.

Benjamin Wess then scored a goal in the space of eight minutes to level the score. After that no further goals could be scored and the match ended in a draw.

Germany, who were gunning for a hat-trick of titles after their 2002 and 2006 triumphs, will surely be disappointed with the results.

In the last match of the day, Netherlands took on Argentina. The three-time world champion, Dutch team, looked in ominous form throughout the match.

A brilliant hat-trick by Taeke Taekema helped the Netherlands thrash Argentina 3-nil.