IPOH – New Zealand’s head coach Greg Nicol was not entirely impressed with his team’s performance despite their emphatic 7-1 win against Canada at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup today.
Nicol said that his players should improve their penalty corners if they hope to do well in this year’s Paris Olympics.
New Zealand, known as the Black Sticks by their fans, received a total of 11 penalty corners in their opening game but only managed to convert one goal from their set pieces.
“It was a comfortable win for our side, but we wasted so many chances, and we believe we could have won with a bigger margin.
“Our standards should be higher than this if we aim to do well in Paris. Today we failed to make use of the variations we have trained on over the months.
“However, I understand that most of the players are still young and need more time to adapt to the system. Additionally, most of our main flickers are not here in the squad for this tournament.
“Penalty corners are something that we really need to improve on, but we do have some tricks up our sleeves. We will definitely make use of those in our other matches in this tournament,” said Nicol in a post-match conference.
Meanwhile, Canada’s head coach Patrick Tshutshani said that he was impressed with his team despite their heavy defeat against New Zealanders.
“The boys put up a really good game, and they were strong defensively in the final two-quarters of the game. We knew the defeat was coming, but my boys stayed in the game and fought until the end.
“We had a total of six debutants in today’s match, and we need to play in games like this to continue growing ourselves in the years to come,” said Patrick.
The Black Sticks took only 60 seconds to punish Canada’s defensive mistake through a calm finish by Scott Boyde, who made his 13th appearance for his country.
George Baker then doubled the lead for New Zealand after easily sprinting past Canada’s Sean Davis to beat goalkeeper Zachary Coombs with a low shot in the 16th minute.
The third quarter of the match saw New Zealand being more vicious with their attacks, with midfielder Jake Smith getting his side’s third through a penalty corner.
Baker then got his second of the game, thus making it 4-0 for New Zealand in the 41st minute, while Smith also got his second goal of the game in the 45th minute to give a comfortable 5-0 lead for New Zealand.
Known as the Red Caribou by their fans, Canada got their consolation through Rowan Childs in the 49th minute.
Boyde scored the sixth goal for New Zealand in the 60th minute, while Baker completed his hat trick in the 59th minute.
New Zealand have a total of 14 appearances in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and won the tournament twice (2012 and 2015) since its inception in 1983.
The world number 10 side will be taking on Japan in their second game tomorrow, while Canada will take on defending champions Malaysia. – May 4, 2024