21 July 2008
The Australian men’s hockey team, the Kookaburras, have turned around a 3-1 half-time deficit to win 4-3 against Korea in their second last official match prior to the Beijing Olympics.
At 3-1, NSWIS striker Eli Matheson found the back of the net to reduce the margin to only one goal with plenty of time still on the clock.
With the Korean defence now under constant pressure the Kookaburras continued to pepper the goals, finally drawing the game with only two minutes remaining after Matheson’s NSWIS team mate, Jamie Dwyer, converted a penalty stroke.
The dying minutes of the match played out in dramatic circumstances, with the Kookaburras continuing their all out attack to ensure the Korean defence remained under constant pressure.
With only seconds remaining the Kookaburras were awarded a penalty corner, much to the delight of the Australian home crowd.
After their first attempt was denied the Kookaburras were again awarded another penalty corner, and the Kookaburras made no mistakes the second time around to deliver a moral boosting victory only weeks ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
The third and final match of the series will be played on Wednesday July 23.