PARIS, AUG 6: Top-ranked Netherlands reached the men’s hockey final at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday with a much more comfortable 4-0 win over Spain than in the pool stage when they had to fight back from two goals down.
Cheers erupted from the sea of orange blanketing the crowd just before the final whistle as Dutch fans showed up in force.
They will play in their first Olympic final since London 2012 as they bid to end a 24-year gold medal drought.
India and Germany meet in the second semi-final later on Tuesday – a rematch of their Tokyo Games bronze medal clash.
Spain, who lost 5-3 to the Dutch in their Pool A match, will get their first chance to compete for a medal since 2008 in the bronze medal match.
Netherlands defender Jip Janssen opened the scoring with a converted penalty stroke in the 12th minute after goalkeeper Luis Calzado kicked the legs out from under forward Tjep Hoedemakers while going for the ball.
Captain Thierry Brinkman got the second in the 20th after collecting a rebound off Spain defender Ignacio Rodriguez’s stick and blasting the ball into the net for his first goal of the Paris Games.
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“I was waiting for that moment for the whole tournament because I had a bit of bad luck in the nine yards. All the balls were not coming to my stick, so I was waiting for this moment,” Brinkman said.
“You have to keep the patience always as an international striker. The most important ball is the next ball, the next chance you get.”
The scoring continued in the opening minutes of the third quarter as forward Thijs van Dam sank his shot with plenty of space in the circle after two Spain defenders collided trying to collect a deep pass by the Netherlands skipper.
The crowd again erupted in the 50th minute when forward Duco Telgenkamp scored the Dutch team’s fourth.
“We didn’t do a lot of things wrong, but the small details killed us,” Spain skipper Marc Miralles said.
“They did not have that many chances I think, but they were very efficient and that’s definitely what we need to improve for the next game.”
