Spain's women reach first field hockey World Cup semifinal

Spanish women's field hockey qualified for their first ever semi-finals in the World Cup, following a 1-1 draw with England in their last group match on Wednesday.

Spain have only outdone this once before: with a gold medal achieved in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

The Spanish team, trained by Pablo Usoz, opened the scoring with a 10th minute goal by Montserrat Cruz, who was celebrating her 27th birthday, setting the tone for the match.

Even though the English team came back in the second half with a great deal of energy, they could not beat goalkeeper Chus Rosa until six minutes before the final whistle.

After Wednesday's game, Spain had 10 points in the table, second place in Group A, which means it will face the winner of the Argentina-Australia match in the semi-finals.

Also on Wednesday, two more Group A rivals -- Germany and the Netherlands -- ended their match with a 0-0 draw, in a game where nothing was at stake as the Netherlands had already qualified for the next phase and Germany had no hope of doing so.

Dutch Kim Lammers, who had scored three goals on Tuesday, was the best player in Wednesday's match too, but her shots showed her powder was as wet as the Madrid grass.

China, also in Group A, won their first match on Wednesday, against India, with a narrow 1-0 lead. The two teams occupy the last two places in the the group and had no chance of making it through to the next phase.

The game began slowly, and the Chinese stepped up the pressure in the 15th minute. The pressure paid off 10 minutes later as a long ball from Fu Baorong from midfield shot past Indian goalkeeper Helen Mary innocent.

The second half was lively with lots of attack from both sides, but no goals.

At the end of Wednesday's play, the Netherlands led the group with 13, followed by Spain 10, England 8, Germany 7, China 3 and India 1.

Spain, the Netherlands, Argentina and Australia are through to the semi-finals.

Source: Xinhua