NZ hockey men seal seventh place

PETER MEECHAM/Fairfax Media

SEVENTH HEAVEN: New Zealand hockey players Hayden Shaw, left, and Phillip Burrows celebrate a goal during the Black Sticks 4-2 win over Pakistan.

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A large helping of team pride was used to soothe the Black Sticks' Olympic Games frustrations in beating Pakistan 4-2 to seal seventh place in the men's hockey tournament.

After having a shot at a semifinal place, pool results plunged the Black Sticks into the playoff for seventh, when they regarded themselves as better than that.

Defender Hayden Shaw told NZPA team pride had got the side on track for Pakistan.

"We had to get out there and play hockey after the disappointment of the last couple of days," Shaw said.

"It was just a bit of team pride basically. If we went out there and lost this game, then we had nothing to complain about at all.

"We are just disappointed where we ended up, being seventh. We feel we're a better side than that.

"We haven't played as well as we could have. We have had crucial moments in which we didn't play to our best and that's cost us in the end.

"In saying that we went into the tournament saying that we would give ourselves a chance in that last game against Germany in pool play to make the semifinals.

"That was our main goal, and we did that."

Beset by slow starts throughout the tournament, New Zealand did that again today, having to stave off two Pakistan penalty corners in the first 16 minutes.

New Zealand goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex was kept far busier than his opposite Nasir Ahmed.

Ahmed was not called upon to make a serious save until 10 minutes before halftime, when he parried away an angled attempt by midfielder Shea McAleese.

That was the signal for New Zealand to catch fire, with striker Simon Child causing turmoil inside the circle.

Child scored in the 29th minutes off a Gareth Brooks pass, then missed his target by centimetres in the 30th and 33rd minutes.

Three minutes after halftime Shaw lofted home a penalty corner, his fifth goal of the tournament, and Gareth Brooks made it 3-0 five minutes later.

There was another twist in the free-flowing game in the 46th minute, when Syed Abbas Haider Bilgrami slammed home a reverse stick goal for Pakistan.

Somewhat oddly, Pakistan's goal resulted in a loud playing of Poi E over the public address system as the scoreboard registered a 3-1 New Zealand lead.

Conversely, when Shaw slotted in his second penalty corner in the 52nd minute for a 4-1 lead, the celebratory music was not decipherable as New Zealand-oriented.

A Rehan Butt goal hauled Pakistan back to 2-4 with 13 minutes left.

New Zealand 4 (Hayden Shaw 2, Simon Child, Gareth Brooks) Pakistan 2 (Syed Abbas Haider Bilgrami, Rehan Butt). Halftime: 1-0.

-NZPA