The Hero Hockey Mens Champions Trophy 2014 - Bhuba

Well the Hero Hockey Mens Champions Trophy 2014 in Bhubaneswar has come to an end - and this years event was full of surprises from start to finish. How surprised you are by some of the results and the final standings will heavily depend on how much you know about Field Hockey, and the top Field Hockey teams.

Pre Tournament Rankings

Going into the event the World Ranking where as follows:

Pool A

Pool A results on the opening day of the event gave the first surprise as Australia lost to England 3-1, a result that would set England on the way to topping the group with 7 points after an 8-2 stuffing of Pakistan and tight 1-1 draw with Belgium. Belgium would come back from being 3-0 to Australia to earn a 4-4 draw and earn 2nd place in the pool. Pakistan failed to earn a point in the pool and with a negative goal difference of -10 looked like candidates to be playing in the 7th/8th playoff in 2 matches time....

Pool B

The first round of matches in Pool B left the Netherlands topping pool B after a 3-0 win over Argentina whilst Germany took a 1-0 over India. Little did they know these would be their only points of the Pool stage as the lost 4-1 to the Netherlands and lost 3-0 to Argentina in their final pool match. India snatched 3rd place in the pool on Goal difference after a surprise 3-2 win over the Netherlands.

Quarterfinals

The Quarterfinal draw is simple - as teams play the 1st vs 4th, 2nd vs 3rd from the other Pool with the matches looking like this:

Netherlands	Pakistan
Argentina	Australia
England	Germany
Belgium	India

Now with the above matches the higher finishing teams are on the left and the lower finishing teams are on the right. Consistency at this point would dictate that the majority of the winners in the matches would be on the left. What actually happened? Well every lower ranked team (based on the pool matches) won their Quarter final, and all by a 2 goal margin! Only 1 team failed to score and that was England, the team who netted the most goals in the pool matches (13).

Netherlands	Pakistan	2-4
Argentina	Australia	2-4
England	Germany	0-2
Belgium	India	2-4

Semi-finals

The semi-finals lined up with Germany taking on Australia and arch rivals India and Pakistan playing it out for a place in the final. Germany took the game by the throat and were 3-0 up before Australia pulled one back before half time. Another goal for Australia early in the 3rd quarter made for a interesting end to the game but Germany managed to maintain their 1 goal advantage and see out the game.In the other Semi-final India took the lead in the 1st quarter before Pakistan equalised and then took the lead before half time. India responded early in the 3rd quarter to make it 2-2 then 2 goals in the same minute would again level the scores at 3-3 - the deciding goal coming mid-way through the final quarter for Pakistan.

Classification Matches

I would imagine at this point that the teams were a little surprised to find themselves playing for 5th-8th place. Belgium came back from 2-0 to force a shootout against the Netherlands but they couldn't take their momentum through and lost 2-4.England took an early lead through Ashley Jackson in the 12th minute but 2 goals from Gonzalo Peillat in the 2nd and 3rd quarters were enough to take the victory and place in the 5th/6th playoff against the Netherlands and leaving England to face Belgium in the 7th/8th playoff.

Semi-finals	Classification Matches
Germany	Australia	3-2	England	Argentina	1-2
India	Pakistan	3-4	Belgium	Netherlands	2-2 (2-4 SO)

The Final

To go from being the bottom 2 teams in the respective pools to find themselves playing out the final was surprising turn of events for Germany and Pakistan but they had earned their places by playing good hockey when it really mattered. The final may have been closer but with 2 players suspended Pakistan may have struggled with a reduced number of rolling substitutes. Germany scored in the first and final Quarters to take their 10th Champions Trophy Gold. The silver medal is Pakistan's best finish since 1998!

3rd to 8th

3rd/4thAustralia took the Bronze Medal after beating India 2-1 with the game being level until the 52nd minute when Matt Gohdes scored the winner.5th/6thThe Netherlands made no mistake with a clinical 4-1 victory over fellow Pool B Argentina to take 5th spot. The last time the Netherlands failed to win a medal at a Champions trophy? Ans: 2009 The last time the Netherlands failed to finish in a medal match? Ans: 1988!7th/8thIn the replay of their final Pool B match England took on Belgium for the 7th/8th playoff. Belgium took the lead in the 10th minute, but a brace from David Condon within 9 minutes gave them the lead. They extended their lead before half-time and although Belgium pulled it back to 3-2, 4 minutes into the 3rd quarter they couldn't find an equaliser and England took the 7th place

Summary

Rankings and Pool match performances in this format of tournament count for nothing if you can't carry it through to the knockout stages. Can a good Pool performance cause some complacency, it shouldn't and certainly not at International level but this years Champions Trophy has certainly been entertaining - but what a even bigger story it would have made if Pakistan have taken Gold instead of silver!