The Hague: Australia retained the men’s hockey World Cup title by outplaying Olympic silver medallists the Netherlands 6-1 in the final here on Sunday.
Chris Cirielo’s three penalty corner conversions were the feature of the contest that saw Australia retain the trophy they had won in New Delhi in 2010.
The successive men’s World Cup title wins was a present the Australian team had promised to their coach Ric Charlesworth, who had won it as a player in 1986 and as a coach four years ago.
Playing their fourth successive World Cup final, Australia made up for the disappointment of losing two successive summit showdowns to Germany.
Before Australia clinched their second successive World Cup, Germany were the only nation to have won two consecutive times.
The Netherlands opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Jeroen Hartzberger, but the Australians came back strongly to slam six goals to make it the most one-sided World Cup final ever.
Australia equalised in the 19th minute through Cirello’s first penalty corner conversion.
Australia then gained the ascendancy with a 24th minute field goal through Kieran Govers’ reverse hit from the top of the circle to go into half time with a 2-1 lead.
Glenn Turner beat goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann with a flick from close three minutes into the second half before Cirielo scored with successive penalty corners in the 46th and 53rd minutes.
Jamie Dwyer rounded off the scoring in the 64th minute when he picked up a through ball on the left flank and darted into the circle to shoot home.
The result denied the Dutch a double title in front of their fans after their women’s team defeated Australia 2-0 in the final yesterday.
The Dutch were seeking to improve on their performance in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where they won the women’s gold medal, but the men lost the final to Germany. (PTI)
