LONDON, August 10 – Netherlands became only the second team in history to retain their Olympic hockey title with a 2-0 victory against world champions Argentina in the women’s gold medal match at the Riverbank Arena on Friday.
Chances were even in a scoreless first half before Netherlands got the opening goal of the match in the 45th minute. Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel followed up an Eva de Goede penalty corner flick to slap the ball into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Captain Maartje Paumen made it 2-0 to Netherlands in the 54th minute with an unstoppable penalty corner flick, scoring a record 14th Olympic goal in her second consecutive Olympic final.
Argentina could not find a response and Netherlands claimed their third Olympic gold, equalling Australia’s record number of Olympic titles in women’s hockey.
Argentina have now won medals in four consecutive Olympic Games without claiming the title, adding London 2012 silver to the medals they won at Beijing 2008 (bronze), Athens 2004 (bronze) and Sydney 2000 (silver).
Luciana Aymar played in all four medal winns and is now the only woman to have won four Olympic hockey medals.
