WCT: New Zealand: Black Sticks are crushed
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| New Zealand |
November 6, 2004
TVNZ, New Zealand
> Page Views 177
The Black Sticks began their Champions Trophy campaign in the worst possible way, a 6-0 hammering by hosts Argentina.
New Zealand went into halftime only 1-0 down, thanks to a Alejandra Gulla strike on 25 minutes but Argentina ran riot after the break.
Gulla scored twice more after the interval to complete her hat-trick.
Penalty corners from Marina Russo, Luciana Aymar and Agustina Garcia completed the rout in Rosario.
The Black Sticks will need to regroup ahead of their next match against China on Monday.
Elsewhere, Anke Kuhn scored the only goal in the 45th minute to lead Germany to a 1-0 win over defending champions Australia.
The Australians were hoping to reverse a recent slide that included a fifth-place finish in the Athens Olympics, but Kuhn found the back of the net after a corner play, beating goalkeeper Toni Cronk in a closely fought match.
"I hope we improve on Monday. Today we only had two shots on goal," Australia coach David Bell said. "I'm not very satisfied."
Earlier, Saskia Fuchs and Kim Lammers each scored to help the Netherlands beat China 2-0 and spoil the debut of China coach Jin Chango.
Fuchs, playing in her first international match, scored in the 52nd minute and Lammers added another seven minutes later as a revamped Dutch team easily handled China, the tournament's runner-up last year.
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