BHUBANESWAR - Hockey world champions the Kookaburras have opened their account at the Champions Trophy in India - and just in time for the quarter-finals.
Having lost their opening match to England before throwing away a lead in their 4-4 draw with Belgium, Australia were in desperate need of a form reversal heading into their final group match. Their wishes were granted, with a 3-0 thumping of Pakistan restoring confidence ahead of the knock-out games, where they will now face Argentina.
Rising star Jeremy Hayward kick-started Australia's campaign with a goal in each half, which was complemented by a goal in the final minute by Jacob Whetton. The result, combined with Belgium's 1-1 draw with England, ensured Australia finished third in Pool A - setting up Thursday's showdown with Argentina, who finished second in Pool A. Under the controversial tournament format, all eight participating teams progress to the quarter-finals with results from the group stage simply determining match-ups for the knock-out fixtures. Kookaburras coach Graham Reid said Argentina were a threat despite a ranking of seventh in the world which suggests they are one of the easier teams to face in the tournament.
"Argentina are a team that have been better and better each game," Reid said. "It will be a difficult task on Thursday night however, our boys will be up for the challenge." Defensive enforcer, and penalty specialist, Chris Ciriello was pleased to have seen more of an effort on defence after an uncharacteristically sloppy Australia conceded seven goals in their opening two matches.  "We just focused a bit more on defence and keeping the ball out of the net," he said. "Our basic skills we better when we moved the ball - our midfield had a lot of touches and they created (chances)." In other semi-finals, England will face Germany, while Pakistan take on the Netherlands and hosts India, who stunned the world No.2 Dutch team 3-2 on Tuesday, will play Belgium. Meanwhile, a resurgent India on Tuesday surprised London Olympics silver medallists Netherlands to register their first win of the FIH Men's Champions Trophy here and set up a quarter-final date with Belgium.
After the first 30 minutes failed to produce a goal, the next 30 threw up as many as five in India's 3-2 win as the tempo of the game and finishing of the forwards from both the sides lifted in front of a capacity 5000 crowd here at the Kalinga Stadium.  After SV Sunil put India ahead three minutes into the third quarter, Mink van der Weerden equalised for the visitors in the 36th minute off a PC. India restored their lead a minute into the fourth quarter through Man-of-the-Match Manpreet Singh in the 47th minute and then added a cushion in the 49th through Rupinderpal Singh's drag-flick off a penalty corner.
Weerden lifted the sagging Dutch spirits in the 58th minute when he found the net once again on his team's fifth short corner. But India held on for the last two minutes, courtesy a save by goalkeeper Harjot Singh.
Argentina condemned Olympic gold-medallists Germany to their second loss in three games with an emphatic 3-0 victory in the Champions Trophy field hockey tournament in India on Tuesday. Skipper Matias Paredes, Joaquin Menini and Ignacio Ortiz scored for the Pan-American champions, who ended the preliminary league with two wins and one defeat in pool B of the eight-nation competition in Bhubaneswar. Paredes said he wanted his team to maintain the momentum when the knock-out phase starts on Thursday. "This win was very satisfying because we kept them under pressure throughout the game and converted the chances that came our way," he said. "We don't want to lose this momentum."

Results

Australia    3    0    Pakistan
England    1    1    Belgium
Argentina    3    0    Germany
India    3    2    The Netherlands