Poor show against Argentina cost us a semifinal place, says New Zealand coach.

By Prateek Srivastava

Kiwi coach Shane McLeod, after their 5-2 defeat to Germany on Tuesday, said it was not the loss against the defending champions but the previous one against Argentina that led to their ouster from the World Cup.

“I would not say that we are out of semifinal contention because we lost today. Germany is a top class team and worthy of the win. If we had won our last match against Argentina, we would have been far better placed for a semifinal spot,” McLeod said.

“It is not an excuse but I must admit that we missed out key players such as Simon Child and Hayden Shaw, who could not come here for various reasons. With them, we might have done better,” he added.

McLeod’s counterpart, German coach Markus Weise, on the other hand was a happy man after the top seeds made their 11th semifinal in a row.

Click here for image gallery

“It is a great feeling,” he said.

“We dominated the game for most of the time. Though, in the second half we slackened a bit. After the Kiwis pulled back two goals in no time to reduce our lead to 3-2, anything could have happened,” he added.

On who he would like to face in the semifinal, the German coach remarked, “We do not have any preference. To win a World Cup you got to beat every team that comes in your way.”

The Black Sticks stand-in skipper Dean Couzins, after Phillip Burrows could not play due to a hamstring injury, was gracious in the loss.

“We played much better than we did against Argentina. Still we were not at our best. To win against Germany you need a lot of luck. Not only you need to play exceptionally well but at the same time hope they are out of touch,” he said.

Got questions about the Hockey World Cup? Ask former Indian Olympic captain Pargat Singh. Send in your questions to espnstarweb@gmail.com