Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - August 14 - The Netherlands outlasted the USA with an amazing victory in sudden-death penalty shootout. The loss sends the United States to a match with Hungary tomorrow for the Bronze Medal. What an engrossing match this was from the start between two evenly matched teams from different continents. The real action came in the final quarter when the USA was 7-6 ahead from 6:10. Nothing happened on the score sheet for another five minutes, except for the odd exclusion.
The USA had two excluded players at one stage and the Dutch could not score with goalkeeper Sami HILL (Santa Barbara, CA/Santa Barbara) tipping over the first and a defender blocking the second. The USA took a timeout at 1:20 but Annika DRIES (Laguna Beach, CA/SET) centre-forward shot was wide. REMERS had an open shot but elected to pass, which proved critical. Domenique SARDO (Rancho San Diego, CA/SD Shores) was excluded then the Dutch went to a timeout at 0:56. After the re-entry VAN DER SLOOT chanced her arm with a slider from the top and it slipped in at 0:33 after 11 passes. The USA gained an ejection with three seconds left and moved the ball to Brooke MARTIN (Temecula, CA/SET) who shot to the right position but SLOBBE saved with her left hand, forcing the game to extra time. The Netherlands put two shots on target, which HILL saved while the USA sent only one in the direction of goal, losing the others on the forced-in passes to DRIES at two metres.
Both teams only got one shot on target in the second period and timeouts to each side inside the last 25 second earned nothing, sending the game to a penalty shootout — the first of the tournament. Each missed a shot in the rotation with VAN DER SLOOT hitting the upright for the Dutch and DRIES having her attempt blocked by SLOBBE. Maggie STEFFENS (Danville, Ca/Diablo) took the first shot in sudden death and SLOBBE blocked the shot, leaving KLAASSEN to score and send the Dutch to the gold-medal final.
Boxscore
Quarters: NED- USA 2-2, 2-2, 2-2, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0. Pens: 5-4
Referees: Mladen RAK (CRO), Nikolaos VASILEIOU (GRE).
Extra Man: NED 2/9; USA 1/4
NETHERLANDS: Michelle SLOBBE, Melissa DONGELMANS (1), Nomi STOMPHORST (1), Sabrina VAN DER SLOOT (1), Amarens GENEE, Lieke KLAASSEN (3), Robbin REMERS (1), Marloes NIJHUIS (3), Liselotte SMITS (1), Vivian SEVENICH (1), Charlotte MENSINK, Kiki GESERICK, Karlijn BROUWER. Head Coach: Ilse SINDORF.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Kate BALDONI, Brooke MARTIN (1), Emily GREENWOOD (1), Ashley GROSSMAN (2), Annika DRIES (1), Erin MANKE, Kelly MENDOSA (1), Colleen O'DONNELL, Margaret STEFFENS (2), Kiley NEUSHUL (1), Madeline ROSENTHAL (1), Dominique SARDO (1), Samantha HILL. Head Coach: Kyle UTSUMI.
report courtesy of Russ McKinnon
