Netherlands vs Korea 5-1

Netherlands and Korea played a fascinating first quarter in the last quarterfinals match at the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023. It was end to end action as both teams looked to play on counter-attacks and managed to find spaces through the midfield to successfully penetrate opposition circles. Both teams also won 2 penalty corners each, but all 4 penalty corners amounted to very little, thanks to some brave number one running from the defences. Netherlands had the best chance from open play as Pieters went on a great run from his own circle all the way to the Korean circle, but his shot was well saved by Jaehyeon Kim. 

The second quarter was much of the same as the teams traded possession on counter-attacks. Korea had a great chance on one of their attacks launched from a turnover they forced at the halfway line. Hwang’s driven pass into the circle nearly found the diving Junwoo, but Lars Balk got a crucial touch right before the pass got to Junwoo to send the ball out over the baseline. Netherlands opened the scoring in the 27th minute as Thierry Brinkman cut through the Korean defence from the right and his attempted pass was almost intercepted Jungjun, but he failed to make a clean connection on the ball and Koen Bijen was there right behind him to latch on to the loose ball and put it in the back of the goal to give Netherlands the lead they would carry into the interval. 

Netherlands won an early penalty corner to start the second half and while Kim saved Jansen’s flick, the rebound was collected brilliantly by Bijen and he tapped the ball on the reverse to double the Dutch lead. Netherlands sensed the momentum shift and they kept the pressure up on the Koreans. The Dutch pressure paid off soon as they scored a third goal when Jip Janssen’s slap pass was deflected in from the top of the circle by Justen Blok, who scored his second consecutive goal, after finding the net in Netherland’s previous game against Chile.