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For the second time already Taeke Taekema became player of the day, as his five goals led the Elftal onto the road to success. Three points were a must for The Netherlands in order to keep the door to the semi-finals open. And the Dutch immediately showed their will to win, even Teun de Nooijer playing on an unfamiliar offensive position. Only for the quarter of an hour India managed to keep up with the high pace, equalizing the Dutch lead scored by Taekema by penalty stroke in the 14th minute. It was India's captain Dilip Tirkey who one minute later converted a penalty corner. After that Holland's keeper Gus Vogels enjoyed a rather relaxed evening, as Holland furthermore increased the pressure. In the 16th minute Taekema regained the lead for the Netherlands, as he converted a penalty corner. Obviously he was not contempt with that, so in the 25th and 30th minute he scored again with his next goals after penalty corner, thus showing a clean hattrick.
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India did not do better in half two. Even though for some twenty minutes Holland slowed down the pace, the Indians were unable to make use of the resulting space, and in the 55th minute they put themselves one man down, K. Singh taking a rest on the sin bin. As Taekema voluntarily also paused for a while, it was Weusthof who four minutes later scored with another penalty corner. No question Taeke Taekema continued his lessons in penalty coner flicks and made the last goal of the day in the 66th minute by converting a short corner to the 1:6 final result.
The Netherlands now lead pool B in front of Germany and Korea, also with ten points but still one match to play against each other. And so Holland now wholly depends on today's match outcome, wishing for anything but a draw. India finishes the pool round last and yet has not caught up to the world's top teams.
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