Holland drub Britain 4-0 in Champions Trophy opener, Pak bite dust

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 29 (UNI) Rob Reckers' double strike gave the defending champions Netherlands a flying start as they blanked Great Britain 4-0 in the Samsung Champions Trophy opener here today.

Great Britain paid the price for a sloppy defence early in the match with the Dutch taking the lead in the second minute. Teun de Nooijer found the net from a narrow angle after a nice run down the right.

The Britons did a lot of running in the first half but without success. The Dutch played a tactical game and scored one goal each early in each session and once their opponents were exhausted turned the tables to finish off their lower -ranked opponents. Considering the hot and humid conditions, FIH allowed each team a contingent of 18 players for each match, so that there are seven substitutes on either bench.

Twice in the first half, Britain had a shy at the Dutch goal.

Goalkeeper Guus Vogels saved a shot by Tindall in the 25th minute.

Britain got a penalty corner at the stroke of haltime but wasted it.

Ronald Brouwer made it 2-0 in the 39th minute with an opportunistic goal, firing from top of circle into the roof of the Britain goal with a reverse stick swing.

Just as the Britons are getting exhausted the Dutch intensified their attack and Reckers had a cracking goal in the 51st minute with a superb reverse stick hit.

Reckers completed the Britain woes with his second goal of the match in the 64th minute with another reverse flick.

In the second match, a listless Pakistan were outplayed by last edition's runners-up Germany 2-5 after trailing 1-3 in the half time.

Pakistan took a surprised lead in the very first minute of the match but Germany, ranked second in the world, struck back in the seventh minute via Oliver Korn and Moritz Fuerste gave the Germans the lead in the 20th minute before taking a 2-0 cushion two minutes later through Florian Keller to go 3-1 up in the breather.

Pakistan had the upper hand for a short period in the second half and during that time narrowed down the deficit through a goal by Shabir Khan in the 48th minute.

But, the physically superior Europeans took the two-goal cushion gain in the 52nd minute via Philip Witte and finished off the match on 5-2 with a goal in the last minute.

In the last two matches of the day, South Korea drew with Spain 2-2 while Australia downed hosts Malaysia 2-0.

UNI