Orange gold
Both the men and the women from the Netherlands win the Olympic Games in Paris
Their last gold medal dated from 24 years ago. In Paris the men in orange broke the deadlock and took home the gold beating Germany on shootouts. Pirmin Blaak showed great form during the entire tournament and was instrumental in winning gold, all during the game and saving 3 shootouts.
Before the Games started every expert was convinced this was going to be a very close call between no less than six or seven teams. From these the Australians were the biggest disapointment. GB and Belgium were good in the pool but failed to deliver in the first do or die game. India and Spain were the positive “surprise”. But it were the Germans and the Dutch playing the final once more, a repeat from the London 2012 final.
A couple of hours earlier India had beaten Spain for their second Olympic bronze in the moder era of hockey.
The final showed some exciting hockey, though it remained scoreless for 3 quarters. The careful “chess-like” game so typical for a balanced final. In the fourth quarter it was the Dutch opening the score with a tip in from Brinkman on an assist from Bijen. The same Bijen was sure he had score the second goal a couple of minutes later but Peillat made the unexpected and truly miraculous save with his backhand. In typical German style with just a few more minutes on the clock it was Prinz who first mistrapped on a PC but made up for this error with again a poorly hit shot that somehow found its way in the Dutch goal. The game ended on 1-1 and shootouts would bring the decision… again…
The German goalie is known as a specialist shootout killer and had spoken out before the final in the media the Dutch would be scared of him. Never a smart thing to say. He did stop the first two attempts from the Dutch. But Blaak in the goal for the Netherlands did the same for the first three German attempts, four if you count the retake.
So when the Dutch continued to score their next three attempts it was the final goal from Telgenkamp that won gold for the team in orange. The young Dutch striker, filled with adrenaline, told the German goalie what he thought of his pre-game comments. Not smart, not good sportsmanship… but we can only hope both young men have learned their lesson from this.
The Dutch women win gold as well
The very next day the women played their medal games. In the bronze medal game Argentina needed shootouts to win from newcomers Belgium.
Everybody’s favourite Netherlands had “of course” made it to the final and their opponents were China, coached by Alyson Annan. The Australian coach was now in her third consecutive Olympic final as a coach, In Rio 2016 taking silver with the Dutch and in 2021 winning gold with the same Dutch team.
The Chinese had beaten the Belgians in the semi final on shootouts after finishing fourth in their pool. But we knew from the pool game against the Netherlands they had it in them to make it difficult for the mighty Dutch.
It was China who took the lead and the Netherlands had to waut until 4 minutes from the end before they could score the equaliser. So once more we needed shootouts to decide the gold medal. And again it was the Dutch goalie making the difference, this time Anne Veenendaal…
Veenendaal stopped 3 Chinese shooutouts to secure gold for her team.
This means the Dutch have won a historic double olympic gold in hockey. Both the men and women winning gold had never been done in Olympic history.