Ireland men focused on second chance to claim Olympic hockey place after Spain defeat
Lee Cole of Ireland leaves the field after their side's defeat in the FIH Men's Olympic Hockey Qualifying Tournament defeat to Spain
The Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive rang out in the rain yesterday as Ireland men warmed up. Sixty minutes later, after their 2-0 defeat to a classy Spanish team, Ireland found themselves facing just that position in their Olympic quest.
Two Spanish penalty corner goals in the second-half consigned Mark Tumilty’s side to a play-off match against South Korea on Sunday to decide the final men’s ticket on offer for Paris 2024.
Johnny McKee, the Banbridge forward, said: “We worked so hard to get out of our group knowing we would get two bites at the cherry.
“Spain are a very good team and ranked appropriately ahead of us. But we gave it a good go, they just took their chances and we are looking ahead to the big challenge against Korea.”
In a match-turning third quarter spell, Rafael Vilallonga and captain Marc Miralles scored from the top of the circle within four minutes of each other to record their seventh win in a row over Ireland.
Penalty corner chances proved to be crucial here. When Ireland won the first early in the second quarter, Lee Cole’s powerful flick was just parried away by Luis Calzado’s left glove.
A second Spanish corner, in the 35th minute, was dragged to David Harte’s left post where Cole, excellent on the post, stick saved brilliantly on the line. His block dropped in front of goal and Vilallonga managed to bundle the ball past three Irish defenders.
Spain doubled their lead four minutes later with another corner strike when Miralles struck again to Harte’s left. Cole once more saved on the line but this time could only see his deflection over the line.
With three minutes left in the semi-final, an Ireland penalty corner saw a double effort from Shane O’Donoghue saved by Calzado.
“The PCs are probably the difference in international hockey,” said McKee.
Meanwhile, captain Shaun Murray said: “Sometimes you can have five penalty corners and score three or four of them. It’s the team who takes them on the day, the Spanish were clinical and were lucky with the rebound but that’s world sport.”
