2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Views and Analysis
By Kirsty Mackay of East Grinstead Hockey Club
Kirsty Mackay has made 32 appearances for England and Great Britain Indoors and Outdoors and represented England recently at the Rabobank World Cup and the Investec London Cup. Kirsty has competed also at EuroHockey Nations Championships, World League and EuroHockey Nations Indoors.
We seemed to dominate Scotland for large spells in the first half; what do you think happened ? Did they work us out or were we a little unlucky with our chances ?
Big semi-final today v New Zealand; what are your thoughts ?
We seemed to dominate Scotland for large spells in the first half; what do you think happened ? Did they work us out or were we a little unlucky with our chances ?
On the whole I was pretty impressed with the England performance, particularly with the number of chances and circle entries created in the first half. I feel it was down to a combination of Scotland stepping up their game in the second half and England not putting more of their chances away earlier on. Scotland had nothing to lose and so they could go for it. Had they threatened more in their penalty corner attack, it could have been a very different result. Yes it was scrappy, but thats the passion involved in a typical home nations battle. It was a great game for the spectator, hearts were on sleeves and everybody battled to the end.
As I have been watching most of the action from our pool and our men's games I actually haven't seen New Zealand play at this tournament yet. From what i can tell, they haven't yet been tested defensively, only conceding one goal vs South Africa! They have demonstrated that they are clinical, as they have scored a total of 25 goals thus far.
New zealand are an experienced side and are a quick, direct, counter attacking side. They won silver in Delhi, four years ago and so they will be looking to achieve yet another commonwealth games final. Their key players to be weary of are Anita Punt, Gemma Flynn and Katie Glynn. All are very strong on the ball, Punt is tremendously quick, so we will need to be concentrating on our marking against her and be mindful of our distances.
We have been putting in some great performances in halves of games and if we can do that for the full 70 minutes, then I think we can beat them today! They had a close encounter with SA, the only team to pressure them at this tournament so far, so I think they will be fearful of what pressure we can apply to them today. A good team performance today will get us a result!
Kirsty can be seen in action during the coming season playing for East Grinstead Hockey Club.
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