The Netherlands produced one of the most memorable fight-backs in memory to win the Rabo FIH Champions Trophy by defeating world Champions Argentina in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Maartje Paumen scored a hat-trick to help her team recover from a 3-0 deficit to tie the match, before two goal-less periods of extra time lead to the first penalty shoot-out in Champions Trophy history. Carla Rebecchi, Luciana Aymar and Daniela Sruoga were all denied by Dutch shot-stopper Joyce Sombroek, which proved to be enough to give The Netherlands their first Champions Trophy since 2007, denying Argentina a fourth title in a row.
It was a brilliant day for The Netherlands, who also collected three of the six additional prizes in the closing ceremony. Team captain Maartje Paumen collected the Rabo Cup for the Best Player of the Tournament as well as the Shell Top Scorer awards, while Willemijn Bos was named as the Volvo Most Promising Player of the tournament.
Argentina’s Belen Succi was given the Heineken Cup for Best Goalkeeper, while Zhao Yudiao was given the Adidas Goal of the Tournament Award. The England team was named as the winners of the BDO Trophy for Fair Play.
Delighted Netherland coach Max Caldas said in the post match Press Conference: “They scored three goals with their first three chances, but the girls stayed cool. The 3-1 goal turned the game around for us, it was the difference … I think the public was the winner in this match they got to see a fantastic game. Luckily we won.”
When we went down 3-1 we also went down mentally”, said Argentina’s world cup winning coach Carlos Retegui. “That will happen, especially since we had a very young team here in Holland.”
Argentina captain Luciana Aymar was obviously disappointed with the outcome. “We had a good start in the first half, but when they put in the 3-1 goal it was hard for us. In the second half they played well, ran us hard and
we got tired.”
