penalty corner – Michmutters
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Commonwealth Games 2022: Australia vs India hockey final, Kookaburras win gold in bloodbath

It was sheer, cold-blooded murder—everything you would expect of a team of champions.

It is only a penalty shoot-out loss to Belgium at the Tokyo Olympics in the gold medal match last year that stops the Kookaburras being in the same conversation as the Aussie women’s cricket team as our greatest national teams going around right now.

They have everything you can want.

Ruthless, silky ability to find goals in the final third. Check.

Brutal intensity off the ball. Check. Even ahead 7-0 in the fourth quarter, the Aussie defense was screaming and scrambling like their lives depended on it. “They have really had each other’s back,” former Hockeyroos star Georgie Parker said on Channel 7.

A humble, classy Aussie spirit that conceals a killer-instinct. Check. Veteran Eddie Ockenden was selected to carry the Aussie flag at the Opening Ceremony for a reason.

Ockenden, at the age of 35, didn’t rule out the possibility of playing through to the 2026 Commonwealth Games — admitting the lure of competing in Victoria had real appeal.

For all these reasons and more, poor India didn’t stand a chance in Monday night’s Commonwealth Games final at the University of Birmingham.

It ended 7-0 and the score was a fair reflection of the Kookaburras’ dominance.

It was a fourth Commonwealth Games gold medal for Ockenden — and the Kookaburras kept their perfect record of winning every gold medal since hockey was introduced at the Commonwealth Games in 1998. They are the only team to win every gold they have competed in since that time .

The first half was a surgical carve-up that quickly turned into a bloodbath.

India simply had no clue how to stop the onslaught and it was 5-0 at the half time break.

Australia was denied an early goal when Daniel Beale stumbled on the ball as he was running in to tap it past the goal keeper.

It didn’t matter as gun finisher Blake Govers got Australia’s opening goal when he converted on Australia’s third penalty corner. It was 2-0 before quarter time as Nathan Ephraums finished off a sweet mid-field run to leave Australia in a dominant position.

When Jacob Anderson tapped in the third goal early in the second quarter, Channel 7’s Alister Nicholson said the Kookaburras were looking “lethal”.

When the fourth goal came he said: “This is just looking like a clinical side, used to playing in big matches, asserting itself.”

He said it was a “state of despair” for India in the second half.

The Kookaburras made the final on the back of an epic comeback win over England in the semi-final where controversy surrounded Australia’s winning goal.

On Monday morning (AEST) the Hockeyroos fell just short in the final where hosts England won gold in hockey for the first time ever.

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Commonwealth Games 2022: Hockeyroos vs England final, Heartbreak for Australia

The Hockeyroos picked a bad time to start granting goals.

The Aussies have been denied gold at the Commonwealth Games after England came out firing in the final on Monday morning (AEST).

The tough loss extends the Hockeyroos’ eight-year drought in major championships.

The Hockeyroos have not won a Commonwealth Games, Olympic Games or World Cup since the Glasgow Games in 2014.

It is back-to-back silver medals for the Aussies after New Zealand also stunned them in the final four years ago.

It was a heartbreaking result for the Hockeyroos, who fought so bravely against a wild home crowd in Birmingham.

In the end, they were left to rue a second quarter where England scored two crucial goals. That was enough for England to win 2-1, relegating the Aussies to the silver medal.

It was the first time England has ever won hockey gold at the Commonwealth Games.

Former Hockeyroos star Georgie Parker said Australia just didn’t have the firepower up front to get back into the contest after they fell behind.

“Australia were just a little bit off it today,” she said in commentary on Channel 7.

“Besides our first opening matches it has been hard for us to score. We’ve had just four goals in the last three matches. And that was the thing that’s happened here. Australia not able to get the win today, but it was not without effort.”

The Hockeyroos were on the back foot in the first quarter and had to defend three consecutive corners to keep the scores locked at 0-0 at quarter-time.

However, the Aussies finally conceded — for the first time in the entire tournament — when Holly Hunt popped up unmarked in the circle and tapped in a goal.

England had a second just a few minutes later when Tess Howard deflected a shot at close range. The goal came after Penny Squibb failed to track an England runner, allowing the opposition to get inside the circle.

It was very nearly game over in the third quarter when England hit the post from a penalty corner, but Australia still had a heartbeat heading into the fourth quarter trailing 2-0.

The Hockeyroos’ moment arrived with five minutes to go when they earned a penalty corner, but there was simply no getting past England keeper Madeleine Hinch.

They were doing everything they could and started improvising attacking moves to try and unsettle the English defence. Nothing worked.

“It’s chaos. Absolute chaos,” Parker said.

“I like that they are doing a variation there. Straight penalties haven’t gone to plan. They just have not been able to score them. They’re working around and it looks like a bunch of tired girls there.”

Australia scored a late consolation goal through Rosie Malone with 19 seconds remaining, but it was not enough to make England nervous before the final whistle was blown.

The Aussies had moved through to the final after a blockbuster semi-final win over India that exploded in controversy.

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