Kampong Too Good For M1 In EHL FINAL8
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men's hopes of progressing from the Euro Hockey League FINAL8 were ended by Dutch club, SV Kampong, who won 3-1 in 's-Hertogenbosch on Thursday.
Surbiton were competitive as expected, but Jip Janssen was deadly twice from penalty corners in the first quarter and having pulled a goal back through Jake Smith just before half time, Surbiton conceded an open play goal at the end of the third quarter by Duco Telgenkamp.
The weather in 's-Hertogenbosch was dull all day, but Surbiton had brighter ambitions when Jake Payton ran towards the Kampong defence in the first minute.
David Goodfield also had attacking ambitions before being dispossessed by Sander de Wijn, but Kampong won the first penalty corner after Mats Gruter was fouled by Luke Taylor having received a pass from Player of the Match, Terrance Pieters.
Janssen dispatched the penalty corner past James Mazarelo in the Surbiton goal and repeated his party piece two minutes later from Kampong's second award.
In response, Struan Walker went close and Stuart Rushmere had a shot saved by Kampong goalkeeper Estiaan Kriek as Kampong maintained their 2-0 lead.
Surbiton had their first penalty corner in the 20th minute but Taylor's drag-flick went wide of the right post and shortly afterwards Tim Nurse made an excellent interception of a Kampong attack before making a counter attack to no avail.
Kampong could have virtually sealed the win in the 23rd minute, Boet Phijffer somehow failing to score at the right post.
Kampong thought they were going to go in at half time with their two goal advantage, but a superb passing move in which Tim Nurse's pass was deflected by Rushmere straight to Jake Smith to score, halved the deficit. Pieters, when interviewed after the match on EuroHockey TV admitted that Kampong were unhappy with conceding the goal in a difficult match.
Surbiton attacked early in the third quarter, but were thwarted by the Kampong defence, whilst Gruter forced a superb save from Mazarelo in the 36th minute as Kampong aimed to restore their two goal advantage.
Kampong gave Surbiton a hammer blow when Pieters passed to Duco Telgenkamp to beat Mazarelo just before the third quarter hooter, and make Surbiton's task that much harder.
Surbiton tried to fight their way back but Kriek made a stick save to deny Surbiton from their second penalty corner and they suffered another blow when they lost their right to a video referral in the 51st minute after Jake Payton challenged an umpiring decision.
Surbiton didn't give up with Barry Middleton having a shot saved, Walker shooting but unable to claim a 23 metre restart, and Conor Williamson finding James Gall whose shot was saved by Kriek in a whirlwind end to the quarter. Surbiton's hopes were really ended when Gall was carded in the last minute and they will have to face Club Campo de Madrid at 1030 BST on Saturday (19 April) in a ranking match.
Club Campo de Madrid lost 2-1 to Bloemendaal in the second FINAL8 match on Thursday, meaning Surbiton will miss the chance to face their former player Zach Wallace, who captained Bloemendaal against the Madrid club.
Bloemendaal will face Kampong in the FINAL4 on Saturday.
Before that, Old Georgians will take on Rotterdam in the FINAL8 on Friday at 1645 BST.
More information about the Euro Hockey League including results, scorers and lineups, and the ability to follow games in real time, can be found at the EuroHockey Altius website here.