World Championships - England lose tight game to Belgium
 In
their first World Championships quarter-final pool match in
Brno, England, despite a strong performance and threatening
to pull off a major upset, went down 14-10 to Belgium, and
will now have to play for 5th-8th place.
England had previously qualified for the quarter-final stage
after initial pool wins last Thursday against India and Saturday
against Hungary, although had to carry forward the result
from Friday’s 12-11 golden goal extra time defeat against
fellow qualifiers Czech Republic.
England started badly, conceding in the first minute, after
a mix up in the rebound gave Jeffrey Campers the easiest of
chances under the korf. England quickly equalised through
Rob Williams, and Aimee Evans then took the English ahead
with a fine long shot. Both teams looked tense, which kept
the scoring rate slow, but strong rebounding from Dean Woods
and Otto Fabius in particular meant that Evans was soon able
to bag another relaxed distance shot, taking England 3-1 ahead.
Belgium looked far less fluent in attack than they had in
their initial group stage matches, and solid defence from
the English meant that open play goals remained extremely
hard to come by. An exchange of penalties at the end of the
first half meant that England went into half time clinging
on to a 6-5 lead.
However, Belgium came out firing on all cylinders at the
beginning of the second half, sinking five mid-distance shots
in a row, which effectively sealed the game for them. England
continued to battle to the end, with the young English female
players particularly impressive in defence and the England
males dominating the rebound. However, the Belgians’
superior shooting accuracy was the difference between the
two teams, with Davor Duronjic top scoring with four, and
Mitch Lenaerts scoring three. England replied with some strong
attacking moves by Rob Williams and Natasha Dawson, and scored
a couple of late goals, but England was ultimately unable
to close the four goal gap. Final score 14-10 to Belgium in
a game that was perhaps closer than the Belgians had been
expecting.
England play their other quarter-final pool match today
at 16:30 GMT against Australia.
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