A World Cup first
Sam Lane and Sam Hiha (twice) capitalised on individual errors to put New Zealand up 3-0 inside 20 minutes against Chile, the World Cup debutants. Los Diablos went aerial after the break before Ignacio Contardo danced into the circle, beat three Kiwis and finished on the reverse for their first World Cup goal.
Van Dam opens Dutch floodgates
Malaysia put up a stern defence against the Dutch in the opening skirmishes and continued to do so until the 20th minute when Thijs van Dam pounced. The third quarter belonged to Oranje, with Teun Beins and Jorrit Croon scoring but rival teams will have taken a good look at how Malaysia were able to carve several opportunities and were unlucky not to score.
Stalwart Korean still in the mix
Lee Nam Yong became one of the oldest to play in a World Cup when the soon-to-be 40-year-old lined up for Korea. The old hand – who many will remember for his audacious lob in the Azlan Shah final against India in 2019 – played his part in keeping out the defending champs. But the wise old heads of the Belgians kept their cool, bided their time and slowly wore down the Korean defensive train after a 0-0 first half. They scored four in the final 16 minutes.
World Cup in two different shirts
In 2018, he played in the famous light blue. In 2023, he is donning the German shirt in Bhubaneswar. On Friday, Japan looked in the mood to halt the Germans, Gonzalo Peillat’s two PCs stopped before Mats Grambusch unlocked this pool clash. Christopher Rühr got in behind the Japanese defence to double the lead before Prinz sealed the win.
What they said…
“My goal was all thanks to quite an intuitive pass by Muller and I just had the keeper to beat, so that was the easy part. It’s great to play in front of 15,000 loud cheering fans in India and I couldn’t feel any better after this win.”
Christopher Rühr
