Chinese Taipei v the Netherlands

The big question in the final was whether Chinese Taipei could compete in any way with the might of the Netherlands, who in the semi finals destroyed their traditionally closest rivals 27 - 8.

With the love affair between the Netherlands and Taipei running back as far as 1987 when 7984 of the 8000 spectators in the Ahoy stadium cheered wildly for the Chinese Taipei side as they headed for defeat against England in the World Championships it was unlikely that the Dutch would be looking to destroy Chinese Taipei in the final in the way that had Belgium in the semi final.

Huan Ling Fang got Taipei off to the best possible start with a goal from close range to take the score to 1 - 0 but 2 mid range goals from Johanis Schot and Rick Voorneveld saw the Netherlands take an early 2 - 1 lead.

Taipei hit back in the 4th minute giving hope that the final would not be as one sided as many would have predicted as Lin Shiou Yun brought the score to 2 - 2 from close range.

The Netherlands then shifted up a gear to pull away to a 6 - 3 lead with goals from Raymond Vitliet and a long range goal and another from the free pass line from Illona van den Berg.

Li Chou Ying pulled one back for Taipei from mid range and as the Netherlands looked to be pulling away with 9 minutes of the half remaining Taipei called their first time out of the game.

A minute later Hsieh Cheng Hsun brought the score to 8 - 4 from mid range but seconds later Suzanne Struik restored the Dutch lead to 9 - 4.   With 5 minutes of the half remaining Wu Chun Hsien brought the score to 10 - 5 from the free pass line but goals from Kim Cocu and Illona van den Berg saw the Netherlands head into the half time break leading 11 - 5.

As the Netherlands extended its lead to 13 - 5 in the opening minutes of the 2nd period the game was effectively over in terms of the result and the question was now whether the Dutch would keep their foot on the gas as they did against Belgium in the semis or begin to ease back.

Two mid range goals from Illona van den Berg in two minutes taking the score to 15 - 5 tended to suggest it would be the first of those two options we would now see.

Wu Chun Hsien brought the score to 15 - 6 from the free pass line but the Netherlands extended their lead even further to
18 - 6 with a mid range goal from Johannis Schot and two more goals from Illona van den Berg in the 44th minute.

Chen Ping Fong brought the score to 19 - 9 from mid range as Chinese Taipei called a time out in the 47th minute and Wu Chien Hsien's running in shot goal pulled another back to 19 - 10.

Taipei replaced Wu Chun Hsien with Kuo Chia Hao in the 48th minute.

Two more goals from the unstoppable, from mid range and the free pass line, from Illon van der Berg too the Netherlands lead to 21 - 10 with 9 minutes remaining and with the final won the Netherlands gave players some game time in the final replacing Kristel Meijer with Anna Schuitema and Kim Cocu with Roxanna Detering.

A minute later Detering got herself on the score sheet from mid range to take the lead to 22 - 10 as the last minutes of the game were dominated by substitutions by both sides.

With 2 minutes to go Albert Nieuwenweg took the lead to 23 - 10 and seconds later Taipei substitute Kuo Chia Hao scored from close range to bring the score to 23 - 11 in the final minutes.

So no surprises in the World Championships final as the Netherlands cruised to a 23 - 11 win in a championships that has not really tested them at any stage.

Illona van den Berg was the games highest scoring player with 9 goals, while Suzanne Struik added 4.

The fact that the Netherlands have such goal scoring power within their female players sets them apart from the rest of world, many of whom see women as simply assist players for their 'stronger' male counterparts.  In the final the Dutch females scored 15 of the 23 goals, well of 50% of the goals whereas the Taipei females managed only 4 goals between them.

Yet in many of the other clashes of this tournament it has been a case of the battle of the male players for the majority of nations.  Chinese Taipei's success has come from the scoring power of the male players but until they can develop their female players to the same levels they will never compete with the Dutch and England's limited success in this tournament has had a lot to do with the fact that Rebecca Woolmer scored 19 goals making her not only the highest scoring English player

The same is true of the Russian's, whose female players never scored in the bronze medal play offand are generally their to support in attack, and of course the Belgians whose females scored 3 or their 26 goals in the play off ,  2 of their 8 goals against the Netherlands and 3 or their 13 goals against Taipei and the Belgians should never forget that it was the scoring power of a woman, Ilse Poinart, that led them to their one and only World Championships title back in 1991.

It is interesting to note that only three women featured in the top 13 goal scorers, Woolmer (19 goals) being one of them and Illona van den Berg (25 goals) and Suzanne Struik (24 goals) the others.

The reality is that until Korfball nations are available female players that can score goals they will never have a hope of competing with the might of the Netherlands