England v Hong Kong

Sunday was always looking like one of the least likely days to produce any classic matches and the results so far suggest that is exactly the case.

England's experience proved too much for newcomers Hong Kong in a match that will give the England camp some confidence bearing in mind that the Australian's made much harder work of the same job on day 1.

England got off to a strong start opening up a 5 - 0 lead in the first 18 minutes with two from Luke Francis and second goals from both Joe Bedford and Rebecca Woolmer took England into the half time break leading 8 - 2.

Further substitutions followed for Hong Kong but with little effect as the England lead was extended to 11 - 1 with Rebecca securing her hat trick and goals from Natasha Dawson and Johnny Nickerson.   Running in shot goals from Lau Tung Kong and Cheng Kwai Cheng eased Hong Kong's misery a little in the 51st minute but he game had long been over.  Luke Francis had the final say with a close range shot to top an impressive attacking performance of 5 goals.

England's domination allowed coach Colin Boys to give some playing to time to players who might not get to see much action this week replacing Emma Cole with Frankie Taylor in the 36th minute and Otto Fabius with Craig Gosling.

The performance will no doubt boost England's confidence going in to their clash with Australia tomorrow and and England look to have a good chance of going into their clash with Chinese Taipei on Wednesday knowing that they will have secured a play off spot that will give them a chance of making the 5th/6th play on Saturday.  The big question is whether they will be able to match the momentum of Chinese Taipei and maybe even go further.

Germany v China

The clash between Germany and China was a similar story as the Asian newcomers were put in their place in the first period by the experience of the Europeans.  Germany stormed to a 6 - 0 lead in the first 10 minutes with 2 goals a piece from Hendrik Menker and Henning Schmidt and the somewhat shell shocked Chinese side had already used a time out after 8 minutes

Gui Hua Chen opened the scoring for the Chinese with a running in shot but the Germans moved up a gear as the half progressed scoring 4 goals in the last 8 minutes of the first half with Hendrik Menker adding his 3rd of the game to take them into the half time leading 14 - 4.

China gathered themselves and proved stronger after the break and effectively 'won' the second period 12 - 8 with Gui Hua Chen taking her total to four, but the damage had been done in the first period and the experienced Germans only had to do enough to stay ahead

The Germans were sufficiently confident to rest Hendrik Menker, replaced by Fabian Kloes and had used all their substitutions by the 34th minute.  China's comeback in the second period suggest they still have something to offer in this tournament but it was Germany's Karen Fuch who had the last say with her running in goal with 4 minutes to go taking Germany to a 22 - 16

Germany have a tough job reaching the semi finals but as ever cannot be written off and their clashes with Russia on Tuesday and the Czech Republic on Wednesday should prove entertaining ones

Belgium v Catalonia

Having seen Chinese Taipei destroy Catalonia in their opening game Belgium would no doubt be keen to produce a similarly impressive performance and result against the Spanish side.  The Belgians looked set to do exactly that as they stormed into a 4 goal lead with Jesse Bremaeker scoring the opening two goals in the first 2 minutes.

Two more goals from Veronique Biot and Johan Moons took the lead to 6 - 1 as Catalonia called a time out but as the game progressed Belgium could not maintain their early momentum and went into the half time break leading by only 5 goals at
10 - 5.

The opening of the 2nd half saw Belgium off to a flying start once again with another 2 goals in the opening 2 minutes, this time from Annick Dekeyser but once again Belgium was unable to keep that momentum going and two substitutions and a time out from Catalonia allowed them to recover the score to 13 - 7 with goals from Octavia Sanchez and Manuel de Souza.

With 15 minutes to go Belgium made three substitutes, presumably to rest players rather than the result of a concern for the result. but their lack of goals scoring power outside of the opening minutes of each half will likely be of concern to the Belgian coach. 

Octavia Sanchez was Catalonia's highest scoring player with 4 goals and had the last say of the game as his goal from distance  took the final score to 17 - 10.

Jesse Bremaker was Belgium's top scoring player with 4.

The big question now is how well Belgium are coping with the pressure they are likely to be finding themselves in respect of the impending clash with Chinese Taipei whose performance against the Catalonian's in terms of goal scoring power looks far more impressive.  Belgium fielded an entirely different team against England than it did against Catalonia and of course the big question is which one is the stronger.  Whatever the answer the result it achieved was not the confident one that might have been hoping for and at this stage most of the smart money would be on Chinese Taipei.  That said the Belgians are often at their best when their backs are against the wall and we can only all pray that those responsible for the 'live' feed video transmission of the World Games matches on the internet manage to get matches broadcast by then.

Those who were not lucky enough to be able to attend the event and now unable to watch any of it might be left wondering just what benefits Korfball has gained from our governing body giving up the broadcast rights to one of its major events to the World Games Promotion Committee, particularly bearing in mind the fact that the sport appears to have lost exposure of the World Champions on ESPN as a result.