Belgium start title defence in style

Bhubaneswar: Victor Wegnez put up a masterclass of penalty corner defence as defending champions Belgium beat South Korea 5-0 to begin their title defence in style at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
The Asians won as many as six PCs but not for once could they get past Wegnez who came rushing out from the blocks like a man on a mission.
Belgium also weren’t too effective with the PC’s as they converted just two from a total of ten but their experience helped them go over the line after South Korea kept it goalless for the thirty minutes.
As Wegnez said after the match, South Korea were impressive in the beginning and made it difficult for the Belgians to score. “They had studied us well and didn’t give us too much freedom,” added the Player of the Match.
However, their dogged defence finally broke down when Alexander Hendrickx opened the scoring in the 31st minute as he converted from their fourth PC of the match.
After that, South Korea won a number of PCs but they couldn’t take advantage of them and it was Belgium who scored again with two minutes left in the third quarter. Antoine Kina slapped it hard into the D from the 23m line and Tanguy Cosyns deflected the ball into the top of the net with ease.
The final quarter belonged completely to the Olympic champions as they finally broke free of their shackles and scored three more in nine minutes. Florent van Aubel, Sébastien Dockier and Arthur de Sloover scored one goal each as Belgium bagged an easy win.
Despite the victory, Wegnez however admitted that they will have to improve their performance if they are to win against Germany on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, John John Dohmen didn’t take the field despite being on the sidelines because of a bout of flu but is expected to play against Germany.
Although Belgium won, it’s important to note that besides Australia all the other top teams struggled in the initial stages of the tournament.
Even in the evening match here, Germany grabbed a 3-0 win against Japan but they couldn’t sound the board in the first 30 minutes.
Their first goal came from their skipper Mats Grambusch in the sixth minute of the third quarter. Christopher Rühr and Thies Prinz then scored two more in the 41st and the 49th minute to wrap up the win for the two-time champions.
What was quite shocking though is that Gonzalo Peillat — making his World Cup debut for Germany — couldn’t convert from the PC’s even for once and will be hungry to make it count against Belgium.