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The FIH Hockey World Cup 2018 being held at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar has turned into a nail-biting thriller almost at par with the current FIFA World Cup 2018.
For the first time, every team in the tournament has an equal chance towards the World Cup, from stalwarts like Australia and Germany to the Indian hosts, to even teams like France who initially stood no chance, being one of the weakest teams in the entire tournament.
With the end of the final leg of crossovers, Belgium and Netherlands have made it to the quarterfinals. However, the match between Netherlands and Canada proved that one-sided affairs, even if few, still exists in the FIH World Cup.
Despite being having struggled against the likes of Germany in the league stage, the Dutch were no pushovers. Against Canada, their attacking outfit proved to everyone that they're no pushovers.
Right from the word go, the Dutch played with just one objective in mind: the quarterfinals. Despite struggling throughout the match in terms of the penalty corner, it was the attacking outfit, coupled by a decent defence structure that came to the rescue of Netherlands.
From the word go, the Dutch played as if there was no tomorrow.
Exploiting every chance that came their way, the Dutch team opened their account in the second quarter, when star striker and penalty shootout expert Mirco Pruijser scored on a crisp pass in the 16th minute.
From there, there was no looking back, as the Oranje outfoxed the Canadian players at every point. By the time the final whistle blared in the stadium, the score read 5-0, just like how Belgium pummeled Pakistan.
Belgium had just not defeated Pakistan, they had whacked them out of the competition. Following are the three reasons why Netherlands pummeled Canada in style.
#3 A weak Canadian resistance
From the beginning of the match, the writing was on the wall. Despite having been compelled to play in the crossover round, it was clear who would take home the ticket for the quarterfinals, when Netherlands played Canada in the final crossover.
From the start, Netherlands attacked Canada with full vigor. Despite having to struggle in the first quarter, the Dutch found success, with Lars Balk opening the scoring for Netherlands in the 16th minute. From there, there was officially no looking back.
Apart from the fierce attack, the one factor that made the job for Netherlands all the more easier was the sluggish and completely ineffective resistance from the Canadian side.
Despite having lost to Belgium in the opening encounter, Canada showed promise, owing to having made the Red Lions sweat for a simple win.
However, the drubbing at the hands of the hosts, i.e Team India probably took a toll on their conscience, as they couldn't offer even a significant resistance against the Dutch side.
#2 A fierce attacking masterclass from Netherlands
Another reason for Netherlands having won the match against Canada without any sweat was their fierce attacking outfit.
Ironically, it was only the attack of the Dutch team that actually worked against the Canadian outfit.
Contrary to the previous matches, Netherlands literally struggled throughout the match. Despite having made a whopping 38 circle penetrations, of which 20 shots were aimed at the goal, the Dutch could only convert five of them into goals, and that too with the help of the attacking forwards and midfielders.
In contrast to the field goals, Netherlands couldn't convert a single penalty corner out of the four that they earned.
To make matters worse, they even failed to convert the lone penalty stroke that they received.
Had it not been for Thijs Van Dam, Theirry Brinkman and Robbert Kempermann, Netherlands could've faced the ignominy of battling it out for the quarterfinals in a penalty shootout against Canada.
#1 An easy affair, but not without lessons
Though this win was a rather easy affair, it is solely because of the attacking outfit of the Dutch team, and to an extent, the efforts put in by goalkeeper Permin Blaak.
However, this also has some tough lessons for the Dutch team. Throughout their journey at the World Cup, they have scored 18 goals, of which only four have come from penalty corners.
To make matters worse, these four have come from the 21 penalty corners that Netherlands have earned, which is way lesser than even most of the minnows, who've been knocked out earlier from this World Cup.
This is a weakness that Netherlands cannot afford to intensify, for their quarterfinal is against the team, which knows this weakness much better than them.
Earlier panned for their poor penalty corner conversion, even India has scored much better than the Dutch on this part, as they've converted some six goals out of 13 penalty corners they received, way better than their past performances this year.
If the Dutch don't improve in time, this is one place where India can outwit them, and rather badly at it.
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