AUSTRALIA LOSE OPENING GAME OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Australia returned to the world championship arena in Dusseldorf - Germany today but it was not the result it had been hoping for with a narrow loss to China.
In a classic arm wrestle, both teams exerted pressure in the first ten minutes of the game to try and take control. The puck moved end to end in attempts to break the dead lock with China out shooting Australia. The Australian Goal Keeper - Gabe Robledo denied the China three certain goals with some classic saves that drew huge applause from the crowd in attendance.
Australia showed plenty of maturity in their approach with control, patience and puck movement. It was not until the 12th minute that Australia was able to open its account with a power play goal by Michael Haynes. At the 15th minute, Australia scored again with a brilliant goal by Brent Fitzgerald which had the China goal keeper still guessing after the puck wa sin the back of the net. However a subsequent penalty by Australia saw the Chinese score on a power play in the 17th minute. in the last three minutes of the first half, Australia scored again with another goal by Brent Fitzgerald as did China on a power play.
In the second half, Australia seemed to lapse in concentration at critical stages which saw turnovers to China. China was able to captilise on those mistakes and scored two unanswered goals at the 26th and 28th minutes of the game.
Australia re-grouped and at the 30th minute scored with another goal by Brent Fitzgerald. It was clear that the Chinese had lifted in the second half and were able to score again at the 33rd minute with a slap shot from the point into traffic in front of the net. Shots were traded in the dying minutes of the game and after gaining control of the puck Australia pulled its goal keeper with less than a minute to go in the game. A number of shots were made and as the buzzer sounded Australia scored but it was diallowed by the referees as the puck had not crossed the line before the whistle had sounded.
Bitter diappointment for the Australian players. China 5 - Australia 4.
Australia now re-groups for their next game against a strong Great Britain Team (Monday 7pm AEST) who easily accounted for Venuzuela today.
Results: http://www.skateaustralia.org.au/rollersports/pages/inline/nat_teams/
David Haynes- Australian Senior Men's Team Manager
ILH Nationals 2008
Please see information below relating the the 2008 Inline Hockey Nationals as advised by Matt Helmers Skate Australia 17/03/08.
Distinctive Homes Dome Adelaide (same venue as Oceanias).
Tentative dates are Sept 26-Oct 3, based on a similar format to 2007.