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LEAST WE FORGET: Belgium beat Germany in the 2007 EuroHockey Championship...
“The 2007 EuroHockey Nations Championship for men is the 11th edition of EuroHockey Nations Championship. It was held in Manchester, England from August 19 to August 26, 2007. Netherlands defeated Spain to win their third title, while Belgium upset Germany to secure the last automatic berth for 2008 Summer Olympic Games.”
Germany 'HAD' to play in an Olympic Qualifier in Kakamigahara, Japan. Of course they beat Japan in the final, and surprise, surprise Germany went on to win the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal.
As for Belgium, they finished ninth, yes, 9th, when they beat Canada in the Olympic playoff.
KAKAMIGAHARA
Schedule and Results
| # | Info | Time | Teams | Score | Status | Match Sheet |
| April 5th, 2008 |
| 1st Round | 7:00am |  MAS - POL  | 2 - 1 (0 - 1) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 9:00am |  SUI - JPN  | 1 - 2 (0 - 0) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 12:00pm |  GER - ITA  | 8 - 0 (4 - 0) | Final |
|
| April 6th, 2008 |
| 1st Round | 6:00am | SUI - GER | 0 - 10 (0 - 5) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 8:00am | JPN - POL | 6 - 1 (2 - 1) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 10:00am | ITA - MAS | 4 - 4 (1 - 1) | Final |
|
| April 8th, 2008 |
| 1st Round | 6:00am | POL - SUI | 3 - 2 (0 - 2) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 8:00am | JPN - ITA | 5 - 1 (3 - 1) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 10:00am | GER - MAS | 3 - 0 (1 - 0) | Final |
|
| April 10th, 2008 |
| 1st Round | 5:00am | MAS - SUI | 4 - 3 (2 - 1) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 7:00am | ITA - POL | 0 - 6 (0 - 3) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 9:00am | GER - JPN | 4 - 0 (1 - 0) | Final |
|
| April 12th, 2008 |
| 1st Round | 6:00am | POL - GER | 0 - 5 (0 - 3) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 8:00am | JPN - MAS | 3 - 3 (2 - 3) | Final |
|
| 1st Round | 10:00am | SUI - ITA | 4 - 0 (2 - 0) | Final |
|
| April 13th, 2008 |
| Final 5-6 | 2:00am | SUI - ITA | 2 - 3 (0 - 1) | Final |
|
| Final 3-4 | 4:30am | MAS - POL | 3 - 0 (1 - 0) | Final |
|
| Final 1-2 | 7:00am | GER - JPN | 4 - 0 (1 - 0) | Final |
|
The final round of pool matches in the men's GANT EuroHockey Championship saw England crush France and Germany outclass Russia before the encounter between Netherlands and Ireland turned into a 7-4 goalfest. The day ended with the day's highest stakes game, in which Belgium narrowly defeated Spain for their place in the semi-finals and ticket to London.
The day ended with the day's biggest game, the direct clash for second place in Pool A: it was London or qualifier time for Spain and Belgium. Once more cheered on by the largest and loudest group of supporters, Belgium started hungrier, more aggressive, and more dangerous than the Spaniards. Against the run of play however, it was Roc Oliva who found the net first for the Iberians with a brilliant reverse stick mid air swing. With the Belgians visibly disheartened, the Spaniards started gathering steam, and added their second ten minutes later, at the hands of Juan Fernandez. Belgium recovered fast, and began playing with more structure and effectiveness, and finally became able to put pressure on their opponents - for the moment without being able to make it count however, and the teams went into half time at 2-0 in Spain's favor.
Belgium were far from done however, and five minutes into the second half, a fantastic reverse stick shot by Max Luycx from the edge of the circle put the Red Devils back in hot pursuit. A controversial penalty corner little later saw Tom Boon put a powerful ball into the bottom left corner for the equalizer which saw the stands erupt in celebration - a draw would already have been enough for Belgium to secure their ticket to London. Nonetheless, Jérôme Dekeyser added one more for a clean victory, sealing Spain's fate and slip into the relegation pool.
The semi-finals in the men's tournament will thus see Belgium take on their neighbours from the Netherlands, while Germany clash with England. In the relegation pool, Spain are at the top thanks to their 5-0 win over Russia, followed by Ireland who take their 2-0 against France with them into pool C.
YAYASAN Negri Sembilan (YNS) feel their coach K. Rajan is being victimised when he was told to choose either the club or the 1Mas Programme.
YNS team manager M. Gobinathan, who is also the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) and Negri Sembilan HA vice-president, is perplexed as to why his coach has been placed in a limbo.
“We have signed up Rajan to coach YNS, but have now been placed in a spot as 1Mas Project Director Lim Chiow Chua has told Kuala Lumpur HA secretary that Rajan cant coach both sides, but must make a choice,” said Gobinathan.
Rajan, a former Tenaga Nasional coach, is coaching the Kuala Lumpur 1Mas players.
“I strongly object to the ultimatum, as it is not only unfair, but also a double standard. Chiow Chuan should lead by example as he has been coaching the national Under-16 team since April, also also was the coach when the boys went to Germany in June.
“Rules must be enforced on all, not not select few who have been doing a great job in coaching clubs and also children,” said Gobinathan.
Datuk R. Yogeswaran, Independent Member of the MHF, had also voiced out his reservations on Chiow Chuan coach ing the National Under-16 team as well as managing the 1Mas programme in minutes of the steering committee meeting in July.
In the minutes, Yogeswaran was noted as saying: “Datuk Yogeswaran reiterated that the Project Director’s main re sponsibility should be with the 1Mas Programme. He is concerned that his role as the coach for the Project 2017 team will effect his main job and wants better planning in the future to avoid any clash of programme.”
“I am also perplexed as to how when the Chairman of the MHF Development Committee (Ken Pereira) had only nice things to say about the 1Mas Programme Camp held in Negri but the report to the MHF Council had some nasty things to say about it.
“However, since we have not received any written request from 1Mas for coach Rajan to choose his field, but only a verbal message to KLHA from 1Mas, our coach should be allowed to wear two hats as both his responsibilities to don’t clash,” said Gobinathan.
