BHUBANESWAR: Pirmin Blaak performed some black magic under the sticks as The Netherlands recovered from a metaphorical ‘heart-attack’ to get past Australia in a thriller on Saturday. The Oranje had fired all the early warning shots and their 2-0 lead with less than 16 minutes to go was just reward for their bravery in the forward areas.
The two-time world champions, though, are a different beast. Coming into the game, they had won 17 on the bounce in World Cups. They showed why. After halving the deficit through a Tim Howard penalty corner in the 45th minute, the Australians poured forward at every available opportunity.
The Dutch, who had retreated to protect the fragile lead, had the ball deep in Australian territory when time remaining ticked down to under a minute. That’s when they engineered another move before captain Eddie Ockenden squeezed the ball through Blaak’s defences to send the encounter into a shootout.
Dutch heads had dropped visibly and pretty soon the two-time defending champions were leading 2-1 after three shots each. That’s when Blaak, who had already performed minor miracles in the fourth quarter, first thwarted Tim Brand before taking care of Daniel Beale’s effort in sudden death to send the World No 4 into the final after a heart-stopping 4-3 win in the shootout.
Curiously enough, Blaak, who had studied the preferences of all Australian players over the last two years, decided to go by his gut instinct. “I had studied all Australia shootouts from the last two years,” he said. “We knew what their favourite position was, and in tough situations, everyone likes to go to their favourite play. We analysed that, put the paper away and said, ‘follow your heart’. I wrote down all their preferences but after the first three, I threw it away because it was in my head too much.”
Jeroen Hertzberger, who scored twice including an effort in sudden-death, said conceding the late equaliser felt like a ‘heart attack’. “I got one when they equalised with 26 seconds left. I couldn’t believe they managed to score. But I had real faith in our goalie, who was outstanding for us tonight.” On whether he felt any pressure, the forward said he always uses it as a positive. “Instead of making pressure into something bad, I always try to make it into something great, like it’s a great moment to try and shine for my country.”
On facing Belgium, the 32-year-old said he was looking forward to it. “They are obviously a very good team but so are we. They have been to the Olympics final and the European final so we respect them as a team. We just have to stay down to earth, get as much sleep as possible and that’s pretty much it... it will be a good game.”