Ireland coach angry after loss to New Zealand

IRELAND hockey coach David Passmore has slammed the organisers of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Auckland after a controversial goal helped the host nation to a 3-1 win over Ireland yesterday.

Ireland were leading 1-0 after 25 minutes of the opening half when a cross from the right was deflected into the Irish net off the chest of New Zealand striker David Kasoof. Most of the players and the crowd seemed to think it was off his chest but Dutch umpire Rob van Cate disagreed and the goal stood.

“I am not blaming the umpires, we all miss things, but this has happened to us before,” said Passmore. “The situation we have here is farcical, that there are video umpires for the last two days of the tournament and there isn’t for the other days. I just don’t think it is fair on the players. Hockey is letting the players down.”

Despite the Irish camp’s disappointment with the decision, on the balance of play New Zealand deserved their win as Ireland struggled to match the home side’s pace and movement.

Ireland soaked up early pressure from the Black Sticks before opening the scoring in the 16th minute thanks to a clever penalty corner variation converted by striker Mark Gleghorne.

Then came the controversial equaliser which was followed less than a minute later by a second New Zealand goal by Ben Collier.

Collier’s second goal midway through the second half sealed the win for New Zealand as Ireland wasted a couple of good chances to get back in the game.

It was a disappointing result after Ireland started their campaign in style with an impressive 4-0 win over France in their opening game of the six-team tournament on Saturday. Goals from Michael Watt (2), John Jermyn and Gleghorne helped Ireland, ranked 19th in the world, to a surprising win over 16th ranked France.

However the loss against New Zealand (ranked 10th) means Ireland will more than likely need other results to go their way in the remaining round robin games if they are to qualify for Sunday’s final.

The top two teams after the week’s round-robin games will face off for a place at the Beijing Olympics.

Irish captain Patrick Brown is hoping New Zealand can do Ireland a favour by beating tournament favourites Argentina (ranked 7th in the world) on Wednesday to give Ireland a chance of a rematch against the hosts later in the week.

Ireland’s remaining round-robin games are against Trinidad & Tobago (tomorrow), USA (Wednesday) and Argentina (Saturday).