Kookaburras survive tenacious challenge from hosts
Published Sat 24 Jul 2021
The world number one ranked Kookaburras opened their Olympic campaign with a 5-3 victory over host nation Japan, to successfully begin their gold medal assault at the Oi Hockey Stadium on Day 1 (Saturday).
But their win did not come without a tenacious challenge from the Japanese, ranked 15th in the world they were leading the match at half time - much to the surprise of the international hockey community and Australian fans.
And in doing so, they put the highly-fancied Australians on notice after what has been a tumultuous 18 months leading into the Games with limited international match play due to the pandemic.
Coach Colin Batch said the Kookaburras had not underestimated Japan, but needed to be smarter with the ball and play to their own game style, not their opponents.
“We played into their tactics a little bit, assisted their counterattack,” he said of his side, which claimed 58% of ball possession throughout the match.
“While we set out not to do that before the game, we were not good in the second quarter and learned a lot from it.
“We had good composure in the first quarter and a very good second half."
