MOQ: Brower's golden goal hand Holland victory over Spain
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| 2004 Men's Olympic Qualifier |
March 14, 2004 
The Star, Malaysia
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A quick golden goal gave Holland victory over Spain in an emotionally tinged final of the Olympic hockey qualifying tournament at the Club de Compo Stadium here on Saturday.
The goal by Ronald Brower inside 10 seconds of extra time secured victory for the Dutch after regulation time produced a 1-1 deadlock.
A day after the Madrid terrorist attack which killed 200 people, the capacity crowd stood for a minute's silence before the final, holding up the international symbol of mourning in black to create a sea of mourning symbols in the stands.
Alberto Esteban, Spain's player from the Basque region, started the final after being emotionally unable to play Thursday's semi-finals against Pakistan because of the bombings in Madrid in the morning.
Santiago Freixa started the first half as he ended it with shots on goal. And the last shot of the half in the 31st minute gave Spain a 1-0 lead at the break.
As he picked the ball from the net, Holland's Taeke Taekema made it plain to Floris Evers that Evers was responsible for Spain's goal, allowing Victor Sojo to rob him of possession near the Dutch's defensive quarter line and pass forward to Freixa in the circle to score past goalkeeper Gus Vogels.
Holland started the second half with a setback. Bram Lomans received a yellow card for a tackle on Juan Escarre. However, Holland turned adversity to advantage by scoring a short-handed goal to equalise in the 44th minute.
Teun de Nooijer broke through Spain's defence in midfield to carry possession to the circle unchallenged before driving the ball past goalkeeper Bernardino Herrera.
Ronald and Matthijs Brouwer and De Nooijer had other scoring chances and Taekema could not convert two more penalty corners for Holland.
Spain earned only one penalty corner in the match with Freixa failing to convert with flick.
FRANCISCO FABREGAS: The Spaniard was voted the tournament's best player.
From the start of extra time, Ronald Brouwer carried possession from the halfway line into side of the D and as the ball bounce upwards, he connected it with a powerful back stick shot past Herrera to give Holland the winner.
With 200 white doves swirling overhead and white balloons rising into the skies, Pakistan's Sohail Abbas received the award for highest scorer; Spain's Francisco Fabregas the best player award; Holland's Floris Evers the best young player award; and Britain's Simon Mason the best goalkeeper award to bring the tournament to an end.
Spain's coach, Maurits Hendriks, paid tribute to the team for continuing despite the events on Thursday.
We felt in the end we had to play and do what the whole society in Spain is trying to do, which is to continue as normally as possible and the team wanted to do the same, said Hendriks.
It has been difficult for the players to maintain their focus. The players went to the demonstrations in the streets of Madrid yesterday and these are all things they have had to cope with.
Taking into account what has happened, the Spanish team showed tremendous resilience and also played some wonderful hockey in the circumstances. I feel proud and I feel confident of what we can do in the Athens Olympics.
In earlier matches, Pakistan beat India 4-2 to take third place and South Africa took the seventh and last Olympic qualifying spot by defeating Belgium 4-3 in the sudden death penalty shoot-out. Belgium had taken a two-goal lead but South Africa came back to force a 2-2 deadlock.
The other teams who made the cut for the Olympics in the tournament here were Britain and New Zealand.
The seven qualifiers here will join the continental champions Australia, Germany, South Korea, Argentina and Egypt in the Olympic competition in August. AFP
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