Vitality Hockey Women's World Cup: The Netherlands are champions again
The defending champions the Netherlands won the Vitality Hockey Women's World Cup making mince meat of minnows Ireland 6-0 in the final in London on Sunday. It is for the eighth time that the Netherlands have won the women's World Cup. And interestingly, in all the three matches played between the Netherlands and Ireland, the World Cup champions won each game with an identical 6-0 margin. The last time the two teams played each other in World Cup was in 2002 when the Dutch won 6-0 in a pool game. Earlier, Spain beat Australia 3-1 to win the bronze medal. The Dutch superiority was never in doubt. The green shirts, or Ireland, who have been giantkiller of the tournament, were, however, a disappointment in the final as it meekly gave in to the much fancied Dutch. The final may have come for a big disappointment for the spectators as they expected a fierce contest after the penalty shootouts in the semi finals. If the four sides in last four were so close, the huge difference in the final two teams may have come as a disappointing surprise to those who watched the final with the Dutch scoring four goals in six minutes between the 28th minute and 34th minute. For records, this was the biggest margin of victory in the final of Women's World Cup. Of late, there have been finals, including the World Cup for men, Commonwealth games and other events, where the margin of win has been six or more goals. Kitty van male emerged as the top scorer of the tournament with eight goals while Kelly Jonkers who scored the second goal of the final was the second highest scorer with six goals. Lidwej Welten with five goals was the third highest scorer and she had set the scoring in motion with a goal in the seventh minute. Kitty scored the third goal in the 28th minute. And within next six minutes, goals by Malou Pheninckx, Marloes Keetles and Cala vs Maasakker completed the tally for the title holders. Incidentally, the fourth and final quarter remained goalless. The previous best performance of Ireland was 11th finish when it held the World Cup in Dublin.
