Hockeyroos Make Bold Start to World League
The Hockeyroos have made a perfect start to their World League campaign after a 2-1 win over hosts Argentina followed their opening 1-0 win over China.
Georgina Morgan’s penalty corner drag flick on the final siren sealed Australia a 2-1 victory over Argentina in front of their home crowd at the World League Final in Rosario on Monday morning following an entertaining game.
Australia fell behind to a fourth minute goal from Argentine star Delfina Merino before pegging pack parity in 53rdminute through a Jodie Kenny penalty corner.
With the match evenly poised and headed for stalemate, the Hockeyroos snatched victory at the death with Morgan proving the heroine.
Praising his team’s effort in the second half, Hockeyroos head coach Adam Commens said, “At the halftime break we spoke about how important it is to have belief as a group, focusing on what we want to achieve and putting those processes in place. It was important for the team to bring their individual qualities into the second half, to go out and have a go, which is what we were ultimately able to do.”
Speaking about Georgina Morgan’s drag flicking abilities, Commens added, “It has been something that we have been working on for the past three years, it’s not an overnight project and we have been fine tuning it over the past six months, her drag flick is highly rated within the team. Jodie Kenny’s flick is world class and Georgina is currently flicking at a similar speed and accuracy to Jodie. I think it’s great to show that we not only have Jodie Kenny and Anna Flanagan, we also have Georgina and a number of younger players coming through our program.”
In the first match of their World League campaign, the Hockeyroos edged a highly competitive Chinese outfit 1-0, through a goal to Georgina Morgan, again via a penalty corner.
The 43rd minute goal proved decisive, despite both teams creating numerous goal scoring opportunities.
The Australian squad features two WAIS scholarship athletes, with Ashleigh Nelson and Kathryn Slattery both part of the Hockeyroos’ set up in Argentina.
The Hockeyroos face Great Britain in their third match on Wednesday morning (01:15am Perth time) ahead of the quarter finals later in the week. After defeating Argentina, Australia currently sit on top of the Pool B standings on six points.
-with HockeyAus
