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Australia opened the scoring just 2 minutes into the game after a mistake by the New Zealand defence. McCann picked up the ball and passed to Dwyer who was wide open in the D and easily pushed the ball into the goal. This goal saw the Australian begin to assert their dominance over the game, creating a number of openings in the New Zealand defence that were then wasted. New Zealand got their first real chance for a goal in the 11th minute, with Child's backhand hit narrowly missing the cross bar. However, New Zealand found their equaliser in the 19th minute after a short corner.
The New Zealand team created a number of opportunities in the 5 minutes that followed, including another short corner, but they couldn't make them count. Australia then renewed their lead in the 26th minute. Hammond won possession in midfield, passing to Ford, who's cross into the D was deflected into the goal by McCann's reverse stick. The third goal then followed just 5 minutes later with a goal from a short corner by Elder.
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Australia started into the second half aggressively again, but were let down by a number of individual mistakes. New Zealand continued to struggle to come forward. A quick counter attack by the Australians in the 48th minute, along with weaknesses in the New Zealand defence led to Australia extending their lead yet further, this time with the goal by Naylor. Still the New Zealanders were unable to threaten the Australian D, and so the Australians came to score their 5th goal in the 55th minute – Another quick counter attack dribbled into the D by Hammond and finished by Brooks. Australia controlled the game further, with New Zealand unable to break into the Australian quarter. Dwyer found his second goal of the match in the 64th minute, and finally the Australians extended their lead by yet another goal, a flick by Doerner, to bring the full time score to 7:1.
New Zealand were unable to stay in the game in the second half, as they had just managed in the first. Australia are now the first team to qualify for the semi finals. New Zealand could not repeat their strong performances from their previous matches and were, today, simply outclassed by an organised and aggressive Australian side.
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