Argentina and holders Netherlands booked their places in the FIH Women\u2019s Hockey World Cup final on Thursday night with identical 1-0 victories, setting up a title showdown between two of the sport\u2019s leading nations.<\/p>\n
Argentina edged Australia in the pre-final 1-0 at the Belfius Hockey Arena in Belgium, with Julieta Jankunas scoring the decisive goal in a tense encounter that remained goalless for more than three quarters.<\/p>\n
Australians made life difficult for Argentina with a disciplined defensive display, while both teams struggled to create a clear opening in the first three quarters.<\/p>\n
Argentina, however, applied sustained pressure and earned eight penalty corners during the match. Australia had three of their own, but neither side could convert their early opportunities.<\/p>\n
Jankunas finally broke the deadlock in the fourth quarter, finding the net to give Argentina the lead at a crucial stage of the contest.<\/p>\n
Australia pushed forward in search of an equaliser but could not find a way past Argentina goalkeeper Cristina Cosentino and a defence that held firm until the final whistle.<\/p>\n
Later Thursday night, the Netherlands secured their place in the decider once again with a similarly narrow victory over co-hosts Belgium at the Wagener Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen.<\/p>\n
This is the eighth successive occasion that the Netherlands have made it to the final.<\/p>\n
Frederique Matla scored the only goal of the match in the second quarter through a counterattack, giving the defending champions a lead they would protect for the remainder of the contest.<\/p>\n
Belgium responded with pressure of their own and earned four penalty corners, but the hosts were unable to turn any of those chances into goals.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands had two penalty corners but also failed to convert them, leaving Matla’s field goal as the difference between the sides.<\/p>\n
Belgium continued to search for an equaliser in the closing stages, but the Dutch defence remained organised and denied the hosts a way back into the match.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands’ victory keeps their bid for another world title alive, while Belgium will now turn their attention to the bronze-medal match.<\/p>\n
For Argentina, Jankunas provided the decisive moment after a match dominated by defensive resilience and missed penalty-corner opportunities. For the Netherlands, Matla’s second-quarter strike proved enough to send the defending champions through.<\/p>\n
With both finalists demonstrating an ability to win under pressure, the final promises another closely fought contest, with Argentina seeking the title and the Netherlands aiming to defend their crown.<\/p>\n
In the 2022 FIH Women\u2019s World Cup final Netherlands had defeated Argentina 3-1 in Spain.<\/p>\n
Netherlands will be looking for their fourth successive title and tenth overall while Argentina have been to six previous finals but won just two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina and holders Netherlands booked their places in the FIH Women\u2019s Hockey World Cup final on Thursday night with identical 1-0 victories, setting up a title showdown between two of the sport\u2019s leading nations. Argentina edged Australia in the pre-final 1-0 at the Belfius Hockey Arena in Belgium, with Julieta Jankunas scoring the decisive goal …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5252,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions\/5252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}