Grass hockey is one of the sports that struggles to adapt to modernity. He gave the alternative to the video-arbitration long before football and looked for formulas to reinvent his great international club and selections competitions, but the essence of the game remains the same and, as decades ago, strategy plays make a difference. And in them, a situation as repeated during the parties as the penalty-corner ends up deciding victories, titles and medals. That they tell the Redsticks: the Spanish women's team played a commendable semifinal of the European in Moenchengladb for what is, without discussion, the best team in the world, the Netherlands. He did everything right, he scored first, he defended luxury, but could not prevent the Dutch made the prognosis (3-1) with a single factor: three penalties of the same player, the unstoppable Yibbi Jansen.
Jansen solves matches. He has already marked a ball stopped in this European and probably on Sunday, in the final, he is again decisive. Against Spain it was completely. She alone was in charge of saving the Netherlands when her team, surprised by the initial 0-1 of Spain in the first quarter, seemed more lost, something strange in a block that won gold in the last two Olympic Games, the last two Europeans and also in the last three World Cups.
Patricia Alvarez marked the exciting 0-1
He won the Netherlands, but Spain was reinforced after its excellent game, and on Sunday he will seek bronze (14.30) after dreaming for many minutes with a deed and the pass to the final. Output, he left his powerful touched rival thanks to the ingenuity of Patricia Álvarez, who at 4 minutes marked the unexpected 0-1 diverting just inside the area a centered pass. The Redisticks of Carlos García Cuenca settled to the result and, with an invividual defense with hardly any snacks, they contained their rival well for a first quarter in which Netherlands did not have a single penalty-corner to take advantage of its superiority in the strategy plays, and even Spain had another occasion at six minutes.
The pressure of the favorites was accentuated in the second quarter, in which Spain had trouble playing beyond its midfield. And the fateful play came, two consecutive penalties-corner for the Dutch. In the second, at 21 minutes, the pitcher put a strong and tense ball to Yibbi Jansen to execute at such a speed that goalkeeper Clara Pérez could barely see her. And after the tie, only four minutes later, the play was repeated. New penalty-corner, again Jansen in the crown of the area, and another unstoppable shot, this time to the left of Pérez: 2-1.
Spain will play on Sunday (14.30) the Bronze match in Moenchengladbach
As in the male semifinal of the previous day, Spain was a victim of the effectiveness of its rival's stop, although that is usually a factor that in the hockey grass differentiates the good teams from the largest, and the Netherlands is the largest in the women's category. The third quarter kept Spain more focused on defending than to dream of the draw, because the Netherlands remained overturned in search of more goals that did not arrive. But in the last quarter, Jansen closed his penalty-corner triplet (3-1) and Spain has already begun to think about the fight for Sunday's bronze.
