Scotland women fall short against China as a successful week in the Netherlands comes to an end
The last game of Scotland’s women’s test matches against Australia and China saw China clock up a 3-0 win in Amstelveen. Scotland created good chances but couldn’t capitalise against the 10th ranked team in the World, while China was clinical on the counter attack.
Scotland struggled to impose themselves on the game in the first half, but despite this it took China until deep into the second quarter to break the deadlock. A penalty corner found the net to make it 1-0, which was how things remained at half time.
In the second half the Scots kicked on and pushed China back for much of the contest.
Katie Birch had had a penalty corner effort denied as Scotland tried to fight back into the contest, and Heather McEwan also had a penalty corner deflection well blocked.
Late in the third quarter China went 2-0 ahead, and history repeated itself late in the final quarter as they struck again to make it 3-0.
Head Coach Chris Duncan said, “Today was a good lesson in what it takes to be a top ten side. After an excellent performance yesterday it’s hard to back it up the next day when you play top teams, and that’s something we’ll need to learn. We pushed them back in the second half, and it’s frustrating not to score, but it’s pleasing to see that we kept coming back at them.
“There’s a lot of positives to take away from this week. We’ve had some excellent performances against two of the top teams in the World, and we’ve seen what’s expected of us if we want to be one of these top sides.
“By the time the Czech Republic matches come along in Edinburgh, I’m confident we’ll be in a really good place.”
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