Kookaburras through to semifinal after thrilling win over the Netherlands

The Kookaburras have kept their gold medal hopes alive beating the Netherlands 3-0 in a penalty shoot-out to book their spot in the semifinals.

Head Coach Colin Batch was pleased with how the team played under pressure. “Credit to both sides… It’s very demanding, it’s the Olympics, it’s the challenge that we wanted, and we are very pleased with the outcome.”

“We are already one step further than the Rio campaign, so we are really pleased to get into the semi-final.

“Many of the guys will be experiencing the semis for the first time. Eddie Ockenden has done everything in his career, and he is so driven and hungry for the next thing, so he is a real driver in our group, as is Aran Zalewski.

WAIS graduate Tom Wickham was on fire scoring two goals after early opportunities went missing for both sides. Wickham found the back of the net after 13 minutes to give the Kookaburras the lead and the only goal ahead of half time.

In the opening minute of the second half a controversial umpiring call in the opening minute of the second half saw Mink van der Weerden convert their sixth penalty corner to level the scores. With the scores tied it was again Wickham who added another goal to his name to put the Kookaburras in a good position.

A penalty stroke inside the last 10 minutes to the Netherlands saw the scores level as the minutes counted down sending the game to a penalty shootout. The Dutch won the toss and elected to shoot first but Andrew Charters was too good in the goal stopping all three of the Dutch attempts as the Kookaburras ran away with it.

The Kookaburras now face Germany who defeated Argentina in the semifinal.